The Izaak Walton League, founded in 1922, has been managing volunteers on the ground using the Save Our Streams (SOS) water quality monitoring protocols since 1969. With pride for the past of SOS, but eyes forward to the future, the League launched a campaign called the Clean Water Challenge, with the lofty goal to monitor 100,000 additional stream sites by the year 2022 (the League’s 100th anniversary). The vastness of this goal brought new needs for SOS into the spotlight - to better manage, publish, and share the water quality data collected by thousands of volunteers monitoring with SOS. This meant the League needed to take a good look at our protocols, our quality assurance and quality controls, and our training module to see how to modernize to meet volunteers where they are today. More importantly, we realized we needed to create platform where volunteers can share their data instantly, coordinate efforts, and track water quality over time.
However, with a nationwide scope, the League noticed that other volunteer groups were having the same problems as SOS. We all needed to better manage, publish, and share our data. From there, the Clean Water Hub came to fruition.
Sharing data between groups allows for more transparency so that we can begin filling data gaps and taking the steps needed to restore our streams to good health. Sharing data encourages more connection and collaboration between partners and organizations. It allows for us to build on each other’s monitoring efforts rather than repeating what’s already been done.
The Clean Water Hub is collaborative tool to help people just like you track water quality in local creeks and streams. It’s a place to share your local data results so that we can make an impact. The Clean Water Hub enables you to play an active role in the act of conserving, monitoring, and restoring the quality of our nations streams and rivers. Let’s get to work – start sharing your data today.
