Celebrating 10 Years of Community Science Across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
The Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative (CMC) is proud to celebrate its 10-year anniversary in 2025. Since its formation in 2015 through a partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program, the CMC has worked with over 100 organizations and supported more than 2,400 monitoring stations across the watershed.
The Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative (CMC) is proud to celebrate its 10-year anniversary in 2025. Since its formation in 2015 through a partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program, the CMC has worked with over 100 organizations and supported more than 2,400 monitoring stations across the watershed. Led by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and supported by four additional core partners, the CMC empowers local groups and volunteers to collect high-quality water quality and macroinvertebrate data that directly inform regional decision-making and environmental policy.
By building a robust quality assurance framework, the CMC has made it possible for volunteer-collected data to be used alongside state and federal datasets—contributing over 1.1 million data points so far. Tools like the CMC Data Explorer have made this information publicly accessible, helping landowners, educators, and conservationists better understand local conditions and advocate for clean waterways. From Virginia estuaries to Pennsylvania farms and New York forests, the CMC’s work showcases the power of community-driven science in protecting and restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Izaak Walton League of America is a service provider in the CMC and Virginia Save Our Streams data is integrated into watershed wide data sharing.
CMC Celebrates 10 Years: Press Release (PDF)
Your kit will include a bottle containing 25 nitrate test strips which you can use to test your water source(s) throughout the year. You’ll also receive postcards explaining how to use your nitrate test strips and how to share your Nitrate Watch results on the Clean Water Hub.
Your kit will include four test strips so you can test your waterway throughout the season. You’ll also receive a chart to help you interpret your results and a postcard with instructions for completing a Salt Watch test and reporting your findings.