Recruiting volunteers for Western Canada Water Ranger Pilot Project
This field season Living Lakes Canada (LLC) has been partnering with the Water Rangers on the Western Canada Water Ranger Pilot Project. This pilot project uses the Water Rangers’ water quality testkits as a user friendly, low barrier tool for volunteers to take a suite of in situ water quality parameters on lakes and rivers.
LLC received two testkits from the Water Rangers and borrowed 8 from WWF-Canada to help distribute them over the summer to LLC partners across Western Canada.
“Due to COVID-19, many government community science programs were suspended for the monitoring season, yet community groups have been out, responsive and well-positioned to continue. It’s programs like these that build in the resiliency of water monitoring programs and ensure healthy waters across Canada,” said Elizabeth Hendriks, the Vice President of the Restoration and Regeneration program at WWF-Canada.
The Water Rangers are distributing these water quality testkits as part of a research study whose purpose is to better understand how testing the water can improve our relationship with water and nature, and find out who is most likely to take part in citizen science activities.
Volunteers monitor their lake water quality with kits that are designed to be used by people with no scientific training, and these kits have been used by people from 4 to 90 years old. The water data can then be shared on an open-data platform.
Living Lakes Canada teamed up with the Lake Windermere Ambassadors, the Slocan Lake Stewardship Society, the Friends of Kootenay Lake Stewardship Society and volunteers in Whistler and Vernon to supply them with the kits, which they’ll use to collect water samples once a month across B.C.
“We are hoping to expand this project next year and are looking for additional volunteers who are interested in and committed to taking once-a-month samples on their local water body,” said LLC Program Manager Raegan Mallinson. “Whether you want to study seasonal changes, impacts of a marina on your lake or sedimentation events in your creek, this is a great kit to dip your toes into the world of water monitoring.”
Anyone interested is asked to email raegan@
