Posted 5/18/12 by Andy Otto, Director of Restoration Programs
2012 marks the 12th year of Snapshot Day in the Lake Tahoe watershed. On May 12th, hundreds of volunteers came out to join us across the Tahoe Basin and Truckee River watershed for a morning of citizen stream monitoring. Volunteers were split into groups with trained team leaders and spent their morning taking samples to complete chemical and physical monitoring while learning about water quality and the importance of our unique watershed. Truckee River Watershed Council coordinated the event for the Truckee area. In our area, over 40 volunteers sampled 24 sites on streams from below the dam at Tahoe City to the Little Truckee River.
I would personally like to thank all of our volunteers who came out to experience their streams and rivers first hand! This event would not be possible without the support of our community and their continued involvement with our Truckee River watershed. Thank you again to every volunteer who made this event happen!
If you missed Snapshot day and want to get (or stay!) involved, Truckee River Watershed Council continues to monitor watershed streams three additional times per year in addition to Snapshot Day through our Adopt-a-Stream program. We need volunteers to conduct monitoring on sites throughout the watershed in June, July and September each year.
Individuals, families, community groups and/or student groups can also “Adopt-a-Stream.” Adopted streams are monitored by a committed team of volunteers four times a year, starting with Snapshot day in May and continuing for the three additional monitoring dates through September. We train the teams and provide all the equipment and supplies. Depending on the location of the stream, it takes two-four hours to complete each monitoring session. Please contact me by email or phone at 530-550-8760 x3 if you’d like to learn more. If adopting a stream isn’t for you right now, watch for reminders about upcoming monitoring dates this summer. We’d love to have you join us!