A Citizen's Guide to Understanding and Monitoring Lakes and Streams

Introduction

The intent of this guide is to introduce citizens in the Puget Sound area to lake and stream water quality monitoring. The first chapter provides background information on who does monitoring in the Puget Sound region and why and then describes some of the advantages and pitfalls of citizen monitoring. Because lakes and streams are very different systems, and because most readers will be interested in monitoring one or the other, each is described separately; Chapter Two covers lakes, Chapter Three covers streams. Each of these chapters contains an introduction to lake or stream ecology and then describes different water quality measurements and why they are important. Chapter Four provides the necessary practical information on how to collect the samples for later analysis. The last chapter describes how to take stream flow measurements, which can be an important part of both lake and stream studies.

As with all introductions to very complex subjects, one of the most difficult aspects of producing this guide was deciding how much information was enough and how much was too much. For each topic discussed, some compromise had to be reached. Some readers will find the guide too detailed and others not detailed enough. Furthermore, by necessity the guide contains many generalizations that by their very nature must then be wrong or inaccurate some of the time. Still, it is a good start. If you find the information is too detailed in places, skip over it. If you need more information, refer to the resources and references list.

Return to Table of Contents | Lakes | Streams | From the Field to the Lab | Hydrology