Clean and healthy streams are critical to all New Jerseyans and our environment. Stream assessments are a vital part of our mission at GSWA. We rely on the help of our many dedicated volunteers to measure the health of our waterways. This enables us to respond when we find there is contamination in our water. This self-paced, four-part series will cover everything you need to know to become a fully trained visual-stream assessment volunteer and ready to conduct an assessment! Not ready to commit to becoming a volunteer? No problem, feel free to enjoy this training course for your own personal river knowledge. You don’t need to be a volunteer to spot signs of pollution – this guide will help you do just that.
Session 1: Explore the types of streams in our area, different characteristics of a stream and why they are important, and how to draw a basic sketch of your stream.
Click HERE for Session 1 Stream Assessment Training Guide
Click HERE for the Assessment Sheet (Covers pages 1 and 2 of the NJDEP Habitat Assessment)
Session 2: Learn about Habitat parameters such as habitat cover, silt/sediment, and streamflow.
Click HERE for Session 2 Stream Assessment Training Guide
Click HERE for the Assessment Sheet (Covers page 3 of the NJDEP Habitat Assessment)
Session 3: Covers the remainder of the habitat parameters looking at riffles and the vegetation buffers along the stream side.
Click HERE for Session 3 Stream Assessment Training Guide
Click HERE for the Assessment Sheet (Covers pages 4 and 5 of the NJDEP Habitat Assessment)
Session 4: (Coming Fall 2020) Will teach you how to measure current flow
Further Reading:
NJDEP Division of Water Monitoring and Standards Homepage
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Habitat Manual 2015-2016 PDF