Hudson Basin River Watch

About Hudson Basin River Watch
Getting it Started: Teaching the Teachers

Hudson Basin River Watch (HBRW) introduces new participants to the program through an annual week-long Clean Water Institute presented by the River Watch Network (RWN) and sponsored by local schools and colleges at varying locations in the basin. This continuing education institute is open to anyone and facilitates wider participation in the program. New teachers get intensive training in water-quality monitoring methods and program design.

RWN, with assistance from HBRW coordinators and US Geological Survey water-resource professionals, provides additional training, twice yearly, to participating teachers. At these training sessions teachers:

Learn how to monitor local streams
Make contacts with other teachers
Share ideas on how to make it work

"This is the way science should be! This river runs through my back yard - I didn't even notice it before."

CASEY MOY
Student,
Greenwich Central
High School

Passing it On: Educators in Action

Over 200 students, teachers, and volunteers monitor the Hudson basin waters at more than 60 sites to record and report on the following water quality indicators, as determined by each group's study design:

physical survey
temperature
turbidity
percent cobble embeddedness
velocity
dissolved oxygen
percent oxygen saturation

specific conductance
pH
alkalinity
nitrate
phosphorus
bethnic macroinvertebrates
fecal and E. coli coliform bacteria

Much of this critical hands-on science education occurs outdoors, as well as in the classrooms and labs where students learn to analyse and interpret their data and present their findings.

Telling the Story: Students Teaching Students

Participating teachers and students attend the annual HBRW Clean Water Congress at New York State Museum or the Mid-Hudson Watershed Congress at Norrie Point. Students present their findings to each other, their teachers, and water-resource professionals. Data management and reporting are critical to the long-term success of the program. Students interpret the data and compile reports to gain a dynamic perspective of basin-wide conditions. HBRW has developed a web site that will facilitate communication between schools to allow comparison of their results with others, within the basin and worldwide.

Making a Difference: Putting Results to Work

The focus of this program is on understanding water quality problems and creating collaborative approaches with diverse community representatives. Open communication of results with community and industry leaders increases awareness of the issues so they can work together toward a solution. Examples of collaborative projects include:

A local community was concerned about possible drainage from a landfill affecting water quality. The HBRW team from a local school was asked to look into it.
Stream bank erosion was a major problem on one stream. The local HBRW team worked with the Soil and Water Conservation District and Trout Unlimited to revegetate sections of the streambank.

Web site compliments of Virtual Horizons Network.
Site design by Nathan Chronister.