These past few weeks have been tumultuous, confusing, and just plain weird. A global pandemic was probably the last thing I expected would happen halfway through my AmeriCorps service term. However, despite the chaos and uncertainty, some things must go on as normal, which is how last week, I found myself, as I have once a month since starting my term, ankle-deep in a river, filling 250 mL bottles and recording data. The Regional Interstate Volunteers for the Ecosystems and Rivers of Saco (or RIVERS) program is a citizen-science project that monitors rivers throughout the Saco Watershed, which spans across both New Hampshire and Maine. The program is a collaboration between the Green Mountain Conservation Group (GMCG) in New Hampshire (where I’m stationed) and the Saco River Corridor Commission (SRCC) in Maine and has been running for 17 years. Since most of our citizen scientists are not too keen on sticking their hands in rivers that hover right above freezing, the job falls to us for the frigid winter months.
I am glad that on this particular March day, the weather is fair, and the sun is almost peeking out behind the clouds. At our warmer sites, the water temperature is nearly bearable as we slip probes into the stream and submerge bottles. Each of the parameters we measure tells us something about the health of the watershed: we look at the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water, because it is essential for aquatic life; the conductivity, which we use as a proxy for salt; turbidity, or how clear the water is; and we analyze samples for nutrients, and a few anions and cations. One of the strengths of the program is that it’s been running for so long; the historic data gives us a baseline of what to expect at a given site, so if something is amiss, we can catch it, and we can also look for trends over time.
I kneel at the bank and take a moment to watch tannic water drift past, deftly navigating eddies and traversing smoothly over the sandy bottom. In times such as these, it is worth remembering that despite everything, the world retains some level of regularity: streams will continue to flow, rain will fall, the snow will (someday) melt, leaving springtime mud and space for new growth.
Sarah is a full-time member serving with the Green Mountain Conservation Group. You can read more about Sarah here!