Volunteers are needed to collect water samples from three locations in the Battle Creek watershed for nitrogen analysis.
We will meet at the Nature Center parking lot at 4/4 at 10 am and walk to two of the three sites. We will drive to the third site off of German Chapel Road.
SKILLS: Ability to scramble along roadsides and streams to access water.
TRAINING: Will be provided at the site.
PURPOSE: Calvert Stewards will be assisting with the ACLT water quality blitz. For those who are unfamiliar, the blitz entails sending pairs of volunteers out across the watershed to collect water samples in order to give us a snapshot of groundwater nitrogen levels in feeder streams across the Parkers Creek, Governors Run and Battle Creek watersheds.
The samples are brought back to the ACLT office where Walter and others will process them and before being sent to the Chesapeake Biological Lab for analysis.
We conduct this sampling in early April because it is before all the plants begin to use extra nitrogen to leaf out, and because it is when the leaves from the previous season have had the longest time to decompose and are no longer contributing much nitrogen to the streams. Therefore, a reading during this time and when there has not been rain within a few days prior gives a good reading of the baseline nitrogen in the streams.
