Stream Waders
Volunteer Monitoring Program

Maryland Stream Waders

Maryland Volunteer/Professional Comparison

Volunteer Macroinvertebrate Monitoring is the theme of the publication "The Volunteer Monitor". Page 18 of this newsletter has an article on the comparison of Stream Waders and Maryland Biological Stream Survey data comparisons. The newsletter is available online: http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/newsletter/volmon17no2.pdf

Check out plans for our training sessions and sampling areas at What's New link to the right

Maryland Stream Waders is a volunteer stream sampling program sponsored by DNR that began in February 2000. The goals of this program are:

• To increase the density of sampling sites for use in stream quality assessments.
• To educate the local community about the relationship between land use and stream quality.
• To provide quality assured information on stream quality to state,local, and federal agencies, environmental organizations, and others.
• To improve stream stewardship ethics and encourage local action to improve watershed management.

In order to become part of the program, volunteers agree to participate in a one day training session and then spend about two more days during the March-April sampling window collecting aquatic invertebrate samples from stream beds. Volunteers can either make special arrangements return their samples to DNR, or can bring them to the group collection generally held the first weekend of May at the same place training was given. The samples are sent to DNR for "bug identification" and analysis. 

Volunteer samples and location data go through process similar to that used for the MBSS for quality control and analysis. The data and the reports that result from this process are available on the web (see the "More Info" links).

Is it worth it? See what some Waders had to say about their experiences.

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This page was updated on 1/10/2008