Adult Volunteers
Help to improve your local waterway by becoming a Waterwatch Volunteer!
We welcome anyone with a love for the environment and interest in the health of our local waterways. Our water quality monitors conduct a number of simple tests specifically designed for Waterwatch groups. Waterwatchers collect information on:
- Stream and wetland habitats;
- Chemical and physical parameters including temperature, pH, turbidity, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous), dissolved oxygen and electrical conductivity.
- Biological parameters such as macroinvertebrates
If a Waterwatch group identifies problems in their waterway they can also develop strategies to deal with these problems. This may mean alerting the relevant authorities, launching a public awareness campaign, holding workshops to share results, catchment displays, re-vegetation works, or simply organising clean up days.
Due to a high level of interest in participating in the North East Waterwatch program we are currently at our capacity and at this time are unable to take on new volunteers. However please contact us to register your interest so we can inform you of new opportunities as they arise.
Where we monitor
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Currently, around 60 adult volunteers monitor water quality on a monthly basis at numerous sites in the North East. With the assistance of Waterwatch staff each volunteer develops a monitoring plan to address the ‘what, where, how and why’ of their Waterwatch monitoring program.
Data
Waterwatch volunteers use our record sheets to record water quality data. Each month the data is entered onto the Waterwatch Victoria Data Management system. This online database houses current and historical water quality data collected by Waterwatch volunteers and is available to the public here: Waterwatch Victoria
Waterwatch staff produce an annual report on the data collected by Waterwatch monitors as long at least 11 points of data are collected for the 12 month period. This data is compared to the State Environmental Protection Policy Guidelines for Waters of Victoria. Data reports are provided to stakeholders including monitoring groups, the NECMA, local government and community groups and are available here:
Funding
Unfortunately Waterwatch is unable to purchase all of the equipment for our monitors, so we encourage you to apply for grants and funding opportunities as they become available. We also work in partnership with local councils and community groups to provide monitors with access to equipment on a roster basis where possible. Waterwatch can assist you with writing your funding application and providing relevant information on the equipment necessary and help you get started with a monitoring program tailored to your needs.
For more information on the NRM funding and grants available please follow the link....Funding and Grants
Waterwatch Adult Volunteer Information:
North East Adult Monitor Record Sheet 2012
North East Volunteer Brochure 2012
North East Methods Manual 2012