About Monitoring
What We Monitor: The primary focus of the LWC stream monitoring project is the aquatic insects, called benthic macroinvertebrates, found in streams. The type and quantity of aquatic insects found in a stream tell a good story about the quality of water in the stream and its surrounding habitat.

When: Stream monitoring is conducted twice per year, April – May and again in September – October.

How: Monitoring is done in teams of three or four experienced and novice monitors who follow a monitoring protocol established by the EPA for citizen groups. Monitors use collecting nets, field tables, collecting pans, and microscopes that are provided by LWC. Team members wade into the stream and use the collecting nets to capture live aquatic insects in the riffle and pool portions of the stream. Forceps, spoons and eye droppers are used to pick the live insects from the sample. The insects are then sorted, identified, counted, and recorded on a data sheet before they are released back into the stream. The data are transcribed to a computer database maintained by LWC, and are used to prepare stream quality reports. Because the same stream site is sampled year after year, LWC is able to report on trends in the health of the streams and the aquatic life in the streams.

Time Commitment: Three afternoons per year. It takes the monitoring team approximately 3 hours to collect and identify the aquatic insects at stream-side.

Other Monitoring Opportunities: In addition to the aquatic insects, we're supporting Loudoun Watershed Watch in bacteriological monitoring. If you're interested in finding out more about this type of monitoring contact us.