WAV Monitoring Activities Suspended

March 25, 2020

Dear Water Action Volunteers Monitors and Coordinators,

The ever-changing guidelines and restrictions relating to COVID-19 are far-reaching across our lives. Recent developments have caused the Department of Natural Resources and the UW System to restrict staff travel and require working remotely. Most Department monitoring activities have been suspended until further notice, including water quality monitoring. The Governor's announcement today further restricts travel and activities of all residents of Wisconsin.

Because of these developments, please discontinue all WAV monitoring and activities that require travel and/or contact with others who are not part of your household. 

How can you still stay active as a WAV volunteer during this time?

  • Enter remaining data: You can still enter data from the 2019 season into SWIMS.
  • Review site reports: If you entered your data by the 2019 deadline, reports for your site were generated and are posted here:  https://wateractionvolunteers.org/data/.  Click on your county, then the underlined name of your county.  Wait for it to load and you will see the station reports.
  • Check out the Online Introduction to WAV: https://canvas.wisc.edu/courses/172203.  Whether you are newer to WAV or have been monitoring your local streams for years you can have fun reviewing WAV monitoring science and methods in this online format.  At Module 1 “Course Overview and Participation Options” you can choose to review the course materials first or go right to a “Knowledge Check for Current WAV Volunteers.”  The Knowledge Check covers similar information as has been shared in the past in “refresher” webinars.
  • Watch recorded WAV Webinars: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLe7oc_JH6ZAFElyychCIEQ.  This is my YouTube channel.  Click “videos” from the top tab to see the entire library of recordings.
  • Inventory your equipment and supplies. Do you need any replacement or additional supplies? You can contact Peggy (I will keep a list for later distribution) or your local coordinator.

Peggy Compton, Water Action Volunteers Coordinator for Baseline Monitoring and Outreach, UW-Madison Division of Extension, peggy.compton@wisc.edu