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Introducing KRK's Yreka Creek Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program
Come to our Sign-Up & Training Day on May 15! Learn more here.
Powerful things happen when people have the opportunity to scientifically monitor their own watershed. Research partners increase their data gathering capacity while citizen volunteers gain new skills. People make important connections to their watershed, other organizations, and each other. Volunteer monitoring builds community by fostering networks based on the place we live.
Klamath Riverkeeper is excited to bring citizen monitoring to the Shasta watershed in 2010 with our first citizen water quality monitoring initiative. We’ll start by training citizens to collect water quality data at points on Yreka Creek and the Shasta River this spring & summer.
The goals of the program are to:
1) Fill a recognized scientific monitoring gap in the Klamath and Shasta River watersheds,
2) Add monitoring capacity to existing and future restoration and stream assessment projects,
3) Provide an educational outreach opportunity to the public in the City of Yreka.
Why Yreka Creek?
Yreka Creek flows through the town of Yreka, the largest population center on the California side of the Klamath. This makes it an accessible place for people to view migrating salmon, and learn about water quality in the Klamath Watershed. Yreka Creek contributes about 10% of the Shasta River’s flow, and was once a steelhead stronghold and also a key contributor of gravels needed by salmon spawning in the Shasta canyon.
A critical mass of interest in the health and restoration of Yreka Creek is emerging from local groups like the Yreka Creek Greenway Committee, the City of Yreka, and the Shasta Valley Resource Conservation District as well as agencies like the US Forest Service, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and NOAA/NMFS. Our citizen monitoring program intends to support and expand on existing and planned stream assessments and restoration projects by training citizen volunteers to conduct long-term surface water monitoring throughout their home watershed.
Project Network
- Klamath Riverkeeper has analyzed water quality monitoring gaps basinwide through our participation with the Klamath Basin Monitoring Program (KBMP), a consortium of Klamath water quality scientists and managers working at Tribes, agencies, nonprofits and universities. KRK serves on the Steering Committee of KBMP and looks to KBMP scientists for expert advice and gap analysis as we plan and expand our monitoring program.
- Klamath Riverkeeper has also received in-kind donations of water qualtiy monitoring equipment and trainings from California's State and Regional Water Quality Control Boards. The Water Boards are avid supporters of citizen monitoring throughout California through their Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) which catalogues monitoring data statewide and provides resources to citizen monitoring programs through it's Clean Water Team program.
Get Involved
To learn more about the program or to sign up as a volunteer, please contact John Bowman, Monitoring Program Coordinator at 530-643-7487 or
.