Meet a Monitor: Fred Bailey

Contagious Enthusiasm Drives Participation in Water Monitoring

Fred Bailey first joined the Izaak Walton League because he was looking for a shooting range in his area, and a Google search brought him to the Arlington-Fairfax Chapter in northern Virginia.

He became familiar with Save Our Streams (SOS) from the information on the Izaak Walton League website shortly after becoming a member. He took the macroinvertebrate identification test and began attending some stream monitoring activities.

“I sort of became fascinated at the concept that you can go into the water and pull out some macroinvertebrates or bugs and determine the stream quality from what you find in the water,” he said.

After joining the League, Bailey noticed that the term of the Chapter’s Conservation Director had expired so he decided to put his name on the ballot and was elected. “I always had an interest in conservation,” he said. And he thought the chapter could devote more time to conservation.

One of his primary goals as Conservation Director was to organize some SOS monitoring events at the Chapter, which he began earlier this year along with Nitrate Watch and Salt Watch monitoring.

When asked if ramping up SOS was difficult, he said “I wouldn’t call it hard, but it took time and planning.” The key was using the available resources and leaning into local partnerships. Bailey used the Izaak Walton League website to find out what equipment he needed and to print off the datasheets and macroinvertebrate identification tools.

He also reached out to the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District (NVSWCD) and participated in some of their stream monitoring events, led by VA SOS trainer Ashley Palmer, to get an idea of how an event runs. This also provided opportunities to practice identifying the macroinvertebrates. Palmer came out to provide support during the Arlington-Fairfax Chapter’s monitoring event, and in turn, the Chapter started monitoring a site previously monitored by the NVSWCD.

Bailey reports that he did not have much trouble recruiting chapter members to participate in monitoring. “There are a lot of members who are really interested in conservation, and I’ve heard a lot that ‘we’ve been waiting for the chapter to do more with conservation,’” he said.  

The online sign-up for his April event quickly filled up. Now his goal is to keep the momentum going. He hopes to get a few more Chapter members certified and start monitoring another stream.

See the results of the Arlington-Fairfax Chapter’s recent stream monitoring events on the Clean Water Hub.