“Our mission is to educate and provide opportunities for people of diverse

interests to work together to improve the environmental, recreational,

cultural, and economic resources of the Rock River Basin.”

Nancy Sheehan, Volunteer Stream Monitoring CoordinatorRock River Coalition

2,325 stream miles

WHERE IS THE ROCK RIVER BASIN?

150 lakes and storm water

pounds

Home to 900,000

Covers ~ 11 counties

Citizen Stream Monitoring Program

Citizen Wetland Monitoring Program

Wisconsin Shoreland Restoration Initiative

Events – Send Your Legislator Down the River

Partnering with Local Resource Organization

WHAT DOES THE ROCK RIVER COALITION DO?

62 water bodies do not meet

federal standards for phosphorus and

total suspended solids

HOW HEALTHY ARE THE WATERS?

?? water bodies do not meet

federal standards for phosphorus and

total suspended solids

YAHARA RIVER WATERSHED

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR IMPROVING WATER QUALITY?

A New Compliance Option--

“Adaptive Management”

Yahara WINsYahara WINs

A watershed-based, collaborative

approach to meeting in-stream

phosphorus standards

AND HOW DO WE AND HOW DO WE KNOW IF WE ARE KNOW IF WE ARE

SUCCEEDING?SUCCEEDING?

4 USGS stations

MMSD Regular Nutrient Sampling

Edge of Field Monitoring

UW Student-Led Monitoring

WDNR

Citizen Water Quality Monitoring

By Monitoring

CITIZEN STREAM MONITOIRNG

PROGRAM

10 years+ Grounded in science

Rooted in partnership

Level 3Special Research Studies: E coli, crayfish, phosphorus, road salt

LEVEL 2continuous temperature, dissolved oxygen, transparency

LEVEL 1temperature, dissolved oxygen, transparency, Biotic Index, Flow, Habitat

WATER ACTION VOLUNTEERS PROGRAM

…79 volunteer monitored sites within the Rock River Basin…Over 200 volunteer monitored sites state-wide

POWERED BY VOLUNTEERS

Rock River Coalition – Yahara WINs:

2013 Volunteer Stream Monitoring Project

23 new WQ monitoring sites

7 New SitesNutrient Sampling

(Level 3)

Volunteers collected water samples once a month from May to October

Samples were analyzed by Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District

total phosphorus, total suspended solids ortho-phosphorus ammonia nitrate nitrite TKN

6 New SitesStatus and trends

(Level 2)

Volunteers monitored once a month from May to October

Continous temperature disssolved oxygen

transparency

10 New SitesBaseline

Volunteers monitoredonce a month from May to October

temperature dissolved oxygen

transparencyBiotic Index

flow

What happens in 2014 Depends On You…