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Welcome Back

 

After a winter break, we are excited to have Utah Water Watch volunteers back in action monitoring Utah's waterways. We hope that you’ve had a chance to start sampling this year. Remember to take pictures and record your observations as a way of supplementing your data. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns or if you need any more supplies or equipment. Let us know if you need help getting your data entered into our online database (citsci.org).
 
If you’d like to become more involved in local watershed activities, you can find contact information at utahcleanwater.org or feel free to contact us and we can help. See below for other events and opportunities around the state. 
 
A few reminders:

  • BE CAREFUL when you sample! This time of year, you may want to bring a sampling buddy along.
  • Because of this year’s rains, the stream banks may be flooded or covered with thick vegetation. Keep an eye out for hidden hazards such as broken glass, wire, fish hooks, or holes. 
  • Spring flows are cold and fast so if you venture into the stream, stay in the shallow waters.

Utah Water Week

Thanks to the volunteers who ventured out during Utah Water Week (May 5-11) to help us get our first “snapshot” of sites across the state.  Many of you could not even get to your sites yet because of the very late spring,  so far fewer sites were sampled this year compared to past years.  Click here for a summary of this year’s results.   We will have another statewide monitoring event in July to get a snapshot of Utah's water in mid-summer. Utah Water Watch also helped with other Water Week activities, including: 

20 high school students visiting the wetlands at the USU Botanical Center and Utah House to learn about sustainability and conduct water quality monitoring.

As part of The Nature Conservancy’s Wings and Water Program, 190 4th graders and their teacher and chaperones visited the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve and the Wetland Discovery Point to explore and learn about wetlands and all the critters that live there.

On May 11th, new volunteers for the Utah Water Watch program attended a training to learn how to monitor their own sites. (below)

For information about other Utah Water Week Activities around the state, go here.

Volunteer of the Month: John Slack

John was an outstanding volunteer during Utah Water Week and he is very humble and dedicated! He monitored four sites including: three sites in the South Fork of Ogden River and Weber River. Similarly to many other sites during this week, Weber River had too much runoff to do any sampling, but he still did an amazing job by visiting all of these sites over the course of two days! He has been monitoring for a while now and he enjoys being outside and by the water while he monitors.

Meet Hope Braithwaite

Hello, my name is Hope Braithwaite and I am humbled and honored to be the new coordinator  for Utah Water Watch. Thanks to all of you amazing volunteers for making this program possible! Here is a little info about me. I would   love to hear about you and why you are a Utah Water Watch volunteer. Feel free to email, call,     or stop by my office if you're in the area. 

Email: hope.braithwaite@usu.edu
Office Phone #: (435) 919-1324
Address: Utah State University Davis County Extension Office (Room 122D)
80 East 725 South, Suite B Kaysville, UT 84037

Hope spent much of her childhood romping through the forests, deserts, and wetlands in her backyard in southern Utah. Her passion for the outdoors grew from those experiences hiking and exploring. Hope attended Utah State University. She earned a B.S. in Wildlife Science and minors in Fisheries Science and Environmental Studies because she couldn’t make up her mind which subject she enjoyed most, but knew she eventually needed to graduate. During the summers she helped on research projects, from conducting plant surveys in the Colorado Plateau to trapping geese in the Yukon Delta, Alaska. Although Hope found great joy in being outdoors collecting data that could help answer important ecological questions, she felt that something was missing. When Hope worked for Water Quality Extension at USU she found her missing piece, environmental education. Hope loves learning, sharing her newfound knowledge with others, and watching students explore and make their own discoveries. Hope earned a M.S. in Environmental Education from Southern Oregon University and is thrilled to be back with Utah State University pursuing her passion in research and environmental education, especially as it relates to Utah's waters.

Upcoming Events

June 4 - Utah Water Watch Training in St. George, invite friends to go!
June 8 - Bear River Celebration at Willow Park in Logan
June 22- Utah Water Watch Training in Kaysville

Interesting Articles

Engineers are plugging holes in drinking water treatment - Learn about ways engineers in Massachusetts are using water quality to improve drinking water from Science News.

What can be done to protect Utah's water quality after wildfires? - the Standard-Examiner discusses several ways that Utah's watersheds can be protected from wildfires.

Meet the remote-controlled, trash-collecting robot you could soon use to help clean the Chicago River - See how Chicago is taking steps to eliminate trash in its water ways with a short article from the Chicago Tribune.

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Utah State University Water Quality Extension · 5210 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT · Logan, UT 84322 · USA

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