URI Watershed Watch seeks volunteers to monitor ponds, streams, and coasts

Volunteer training starts in April

Kristen Curry

URI Photos / Watershed Watch

Ever dreamed of being a scientist? Or wanted to do more to protect your favorite water body? The University of Rhode Island’s  Watershed Watch, which has collected water quality data on lakes, ponds, reservoirs, rivers, streams and the marine environment throughout southern New England for four decades, is seeking volunteer water quality monitors.

A URI Cooperative Extension program, Watershed Watch volunteers help researchers understand how snowy winters, stormwater runoff, and droughts contribute to bacteria and surface algal blooms, affecting water quality. With decades of data, Watershed Watch volunteers contribute to better understanding how climate change impacts our local waters.

While volunteers are needed across the state, sites that are in particular need this year include Alton Pond, an impoundment on the Wood River bordering Hopkinton and Richmond, and several ponds in Cranston—including Blackamore and Spectacle ponds and Meshanticut Lake. Volunteers are also needed at several pond and stream sites in Warwick and at Melville Pond in Portsmouth.

A program of URI Cooperative Extension, Watershed Watch volunteers help to assess the impacts of weather, stormwater runoff, and other impacts on water quality, contributing to better understanding of the health of local waters.

Data will be used to help regional organizations and communities identify problems so they can protect and restore local water resources.

“Becoming a volunteer water quality monitor is a great excuse to get outdoors and do something that helps you to understand local waters while also helping to protect them,” URI Watershed Watch Director Elizabeth Herron said. “It also means becoming part of a community. Our volunteers are integral to the monitoring program and often develop connections to the many environmental and community groups that we partner with.”

Since 1988, URI’s Watershed Watch has brought together more than 100 organizational partners and trained thousands of volunteer water monitors. The program maintains long-term partnerships with the state of Rhode Island, 14 municipalities, 23 environmental and sporting organizations, one Native American tribe, 14 lake associations/management districts, and six national organizations. Watershed Watch is also a national leader, connecting and training volunteer program leaders across the country for more than 20 years.

Becoming a volunteer monitor requires no previous experience or scientific knowledge; however, some sites require a volunteer’s boat, kayak, or canoe to access. Others can be monitored from the shore. Watershed Watch provides the land-based equipment needed to monitor, as well as manuals and training. The new volunteer training program includes both a classroom and field session to help new volunteers understand the how and why of monitoring water quality. Training is free, and attendance at a session does not commit participants to becoming a volunteer.

Classroom training sessions will be held Thursday, April 2, from 6 to 9 p.m. and repeated on Saturday, April 4, from 9 a.m. to noon. Field training will be held Saturday, April 11 and Saturday, April 25. During the field session, volunteers learn to collect and process samples and familiarize themselves with monitoring methods to help them successfully generate credible data. Both field training sessions offer a morning and afternoon time slot. Volunteers must only attend one field training session in preparation for the May through October monitoring season.

For more information or to register for the training sessions, contact Elizabeth Herron at 401-874-4552 or at eherron@uri.edu. Visit the program’s website for detailed information about the program, the list of 2026 monitoring locations, and to complete a volunteer profile.