Education

WV Save Our Streams (SOS)

Save Our Streams (SOS) is a national watershed education and outreach program. The WV Save Our Streams web page is revised. Most of the PDF documents and manuals have not changed, however there are several new additions. Some notable documents include a Field Guide to Macroinvertebrates, an Alternate Survey Method Manual and Data Sheet, and Guidelines for Preparing a Stream Study Design.

In the links and other documents section at the bottom of the page are several new links, which are good study and resource materials. They include a Stream Study Guide, Macroinvertebrate Identification, Listening to Watersheds, Stream Morphology and many others.

To download the documents, click-on the icons to the right. In the links section, simply click-on the link. Please note that many of these resources are PDF files that are rather large, so download times can be long without a high speed connection.

What is the West Virginia Save Our Streams program?

The West Virginia Save Our Streams program is a volunteer monitoring program that trains West Virginia citizens of all ages, how to monitor, and become watchdogs over their local wadeable streams and rivers. WV Save Our Streams uses a streamside biological approach to monitoring, which involves collecting a series of benthic macroinvertebrate samples, sorting, counting and identifying the collections, and calculating a stream index score, which consists of a variety of metrics used to assign a biological integrity rating to the station. This information, along with the assessment of the physical, chemical and habitat conditions, provides the volunteer with enough information to make a general assessment of their stream station. By monitoring additional stations along the stream, the volunteers can make an assessment of the overall health of the watershed.

For more information, contact:
Timothy Craddock, Citizens Monitoring Coordinator
West Virginia Save Our Streams Program
601 57th Street, SE
Charleston, WV 25304

Office: 304-926-0499 (1040)
Mobile: 304-389-7630
E-mail: tcraddock@wvdep.org

 http://www.wvdep.org/item.cfm?ssid=11&ss1id=202

< Back to August News and Views