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Brandywine and Red Clay Valley Associations’ Watershed Watch T he Watershed Watch is a program in which volunteers can help monitor the health of their streams. They will be trained to collect and record data and observations on four aspects of stream health.• One training session will focus on habitat assessment and will teach volunteers how to evaluate stream HEALTH as a whole. • Another training session will address chemical testing for dissolved oxygen, pH, phosphates and nitrates. • A third will address biological monitoring, which entails identification of small organisms that live in streams and help indicate stream health. • A soil watch training will look at aspects of erosion and sediment
control in areas of new development. Nationwide,
CITIZENS are successfully The Brandywine and Red Clay Valleys are two of the fastest growing areas in Pennsylvania and RAPID DEVELOPMENT will take a toll on their 730 miles of steams. Monitoring the health of these streams is your opportunity to get involved.
E VERYONE! Participation can be onmany levels.Some of the activities will need to be done monthly, others twice a year and some on an as-needed basis. Trained VOLUNTEERS are needed to: • Perform chemical, physical, biological and habitat data collections and soil watch evaluations. • Collect, report and record the incoming data from the monitors. • Organize, store and maintain the monitoring equipment.
Volunteers S pend time outside and close to homelearning about your environment through volunteering! You would learn: • How to identify problems in your neighborhood • Where to find help to restore problem areas • How to maintain the healthy areas. As Watershed Watch volunteers, you will meet many of the experts in stream health, erosion and sediment control in Chester County. You would receive information from: • PA Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) • Stroud Water Resource Center • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) • Delaware River Keeper • Chester County Conservation District, Along with many more organizations that are involved in
helping neighborhoods to keep their natural environments healthy. About BVA and RCVA The Brandywine Valley Association (BVA) and the Red Clay Valley Association (RCVA) have been working to protect their valleys’ water for more than 50 years. Four years ago the Watershed Watch Program began monitoring streams in the Brandywine watershed. The program is now expanding to include the Red Clay watershed. We can bring our EXPERIENCE to your municipality to pilot a township-based Volunteer Watershed Monitoring Program. Red Clay Valley Association 1760 Unionville-Wawaset Road
Robert G. Struble, Jr., Executive Director
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