The Izaak Walton League’s Save Our Streams program is the only nationwide program training volunteers to protect waterways from pollution and bring information about water quality to their communities.
The program began in 1969, when water pollution problems were easy to see – like massive oil spills and burning rivers. Early Save Our Streams volunteers cleaned up trash from their local waterways and reported problems like streams becoming clogged with silt.
Today, trained volunteer stream monitors across the country are uncovering pollution problems and urging their local leaders to take action on water quality. The work of these volunteers also creates a critical record of water quality over time, making it possible to quickly identify pollution problems that develop in the future.
Anybody can get trained as a volunteer stream monitor – and anybody can collect valuable data about the health of their local stream with no training at all. How will you help to Save Our Streams?
National Save Our Streams
Biological Monitoring
With one day of training, you can become certified in Save Our Streams biological monitoring. Learn to identify aquatic macroinvertebrates (“stream bugs”), assess stream habitat, report your findings to decision-makers, and take action for better water quality!
Chemical Monitoring
Spend 30 minutes at your favorite waterway with a handful of materials and our downloadable instruction sheet. Leave knowing what’s in your water. Our easy-to-follow instructions will help you test dissolved oxygen, pH, chloride, phosphate, nitrate, transparency, and temperature. Along the way, you’ll learn why these factors are important to stream health, and how they can be influenced by things like weather, geology, and human activity. No training or certification is required.
Want to become a certified Save Our Streams monitor?
You can start the process online any time. After that, you’ll attend an in-person training to complete your certification.
Want to become a certified Save Our Streams monitor?
You can start the process online any time. After that, you’ll attend an in-person training to complete your certification.
Virginia Save Our Streams
If you want to become a Save Our Streams monitor and you live in Virginia, this is the program for you. The macroinvertebrate data our Virginia volunteers collect is sent to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, where it is used to target streams for further monitoring, track restoration efforts, and educate the public.
The Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative
The Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA) is one of five service providers in the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative (CMC), supporting a network of water monitoring organizations across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Through the Virginia Save Our Streams (VASOS) program, IWLA provides benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring expertise in the lower half of the watershed (Maryland, Washington D.C., West Virginia, and Virginia). By empowering volunteers to collect critical water quality data, IWLA helps inform local and regional efforts to protect the health of the Chesapeake Bay.
If you live in the lower Chesapeake Bay watershed but outside the state of Virginia, you can become certified through the Save Our Streams program.
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.