Interested in the water quality of your lake but there is no data out there? Join the Indiana Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program! Volunteers like you donate about one hour of their time every two weeks to collect the necessary data. Your efforts provide a number of benefits:
- As a volunteer you will learn more about lake science (limnology)
- You’ll be able to take Secchi disk transparency readings, qualitative water assessments, and possibly collect total nitrogen, total phosphorous, and chlorophyll-a samples.
- By analyzing your samples and summarizing the information that you collect, we will be able to assess the changes in water quality at your lake.
- You will be able to compare the water quality of your lake to lakes around the state.
- After collecting several seasons’ worth of data for a particular lake, we can begin to assess the long-term trends in the lake and determine if the lake’s water quality is being degraded, is improving, or staying the same.
- This assessment can identify which lakes should receive more intensive management and/or monitoring.
For more information on the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program: Sign up for our May 29th webinar, visit the Indiana Clean Lakes Program website or email inclp@indiana.edu.