Lemon Bay Conservancy is participating in the Charlotte Harbor Estuaries Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Network (CHEVWQMN) that is sponsored by the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection. Lemon Bay is situated within the Lemon Bay Aquatic Preserve, one of a network of six aquatic preserves in SW Florida that fall under state and federal protection. To cover these vast areas of responsibility, the CHEVWQMN organization of volunteer citizen scientists was created to assist government scientists in gathering data crucial to managing the health and quality of our regional waters.
Until recently, several sites in Lemon Bay were left unmonitored due to a shortage of trained personnel available to do the job. On December 12th, LBC volunteers Beth McKinley, Louise and Terry Huffner, Allen Richards, Malcolm and Jane Collingwood, and Hilary Dahms attended the training program at Cedar Point Environmental Center led by Arielle Taylor-Manges, Education Coordinator, FL DEP and Tome Shaaltiel, Education Programs Coordinator-Cedar Point Environmental Park, CHEC. They will join current trained LBC volunteers Greg Yagle, Diane Coll, Tonya and Steve Bramlage, and Kerry Bomberger.
All water quality monitors have received comprehensive instruction in sampling procedures and data collection following the Standard Field Procedures for Water Quality Monitoring with YSI Multi-Parameter Instrument manual. This is a strict set of procedures designed to ensure collecting accurate, precise and reliable water quality data. Accurate data is essential to maintain invertebrate and fishery viability, healthy seagrass and to monitor and control algae growth and bacterial levels. We are very proud of our LBC volunteers’ commitment to this important research.