River Watch: 20 Years of Citizen Science

What’s your river or watershed story? That was the task for teams of high school students to portray and share via poster presentations at the International Water Institute’s (IWI) River Watch Forum held at the University of Minnesota-Crookston campus.

More than 200 high school students shared their river stories via poster and presentation at the March event. The occasion was the celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of the Red River Basin River Watch program, a water quality monitoring program that engages youth as citizen scientists in field study of their local rivers. The Red River flows north, forming the border between Minnesota and North Dakota before crossing the U.S.-Canada border, entering into Manitoba, and ultimately emptying into Lake Winnipeg.

“From my experiences in River Watch, I believe that I've become a better leader in my school,” said Brandon Meyer, a senior at Campbell-Tintah school, who’s been in the program for five years.

“River Watch has taught me a lot more than about dissolved oxygen or turbidity. I've learned how to work as a member of a team, how to give oral presentations, and how my actions can affect the water surrounding me.”

Each month during open-water season, student teams in River Watch head to the outdoor classroom of their local watershed to collect data on water quality conditions using scientifically sound protocols and equipment, providing data comparable to that collected by resource professionals which can be used for resource management. Through the 20 years of the program, nearly 10,000 samples have been collected covering 277 sample sites on 104 water bodies spread across 10 major watersheds in the Red River of the North basin. Data entry and access is available online.

“River Watch has given me opportunities that not many other students have,” Meyer added, including testifying in front of a Senate committee.

The diversity of watersheds monitored by River Watch was evident in the stories shared by Minnesota high school students at the Forum. The Climax-Shelly team shared the history of glacial Lake Agassiz, drainage actions to make farming profitable, and turbidity issues associated with the combination of agriculture and the fertile fine clay soils that are susceptible to erosion. The Red Lake team from the eastern headwaters area of the Red Lake River explained successful walleye recovery efforts of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa on Upper and Lower Red lakes.

Win-E-Mac high school’s team, which has been monitoring for the full 20 years, noted its discovery of a turbidity impaired river reach after 10 years of good conditions, likely due to land-use changes from highly erodible land taken out of farm conservation programs and going into row crops. The team’s data were useful in guiding installation of sediment catch basins to address this turbidity issue, with ongoing monitoring planned to assess the effectiveness of the catch basins.

Other teams reported on cooperative projects including flood damage reduction projects that are proving to be popular birding hot spots, fish dissection to detect the presence of invasive zebra mussels, winter monitoring of snow and frost depths for spring flood forecasting, and biological monitoring of macroinvertebrates and mussels as additional measures of ecosystem health.

Team posters can be viewed at the IWI website.

Teams also shared stories from inaugural kayak trips on their local rivers through a new River Explorers program. Students use waterproof geo-tagging cameras to document river conditions to share with local resource managers as another way of understanding, sharing, and learning about the many connections associated with their local waters. River Watch teams are working with local community leaders to promote more recreational use of their local rivers with these fun and versatile small kayaks.

Red River Basin River Watch is a watershed education and monitoring program of the International Water Institute with partners including the Red River Watershed Management Board and its associated Minnesota watershed districts. From its origins in the Minnesota portion of the Red River basin, training support has been provided to schools in the North Dakota and Manitoba portions of the Red River basin. The program has expanded to more than 50 schools, all using standard protocols and equipment for scientifically sound, comparable data to stimulate informed discussion and decision-making.