Kat Kieffer, Water Monitoring Coordinator at Partners for Clean Streams, has been at the forefront of this initiative since 2022.
"What's amazing about LEVSN is how it mirrors the collaborative spirit at both the regional and local levels," Kieffer explains. "In Toledo, we've brought together Partners for Clean Streams, the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, Metroparks Toledo, and the Toledo Zoo and Aquarium. Each organization brings unique strengths to the table, allowing us to create a comprehensive monitoring program- Community Water Action in Toledo (CWAT)- that serves multiple needs."
Locally-driven water quality monitoring programs, dubbed community, citizen, volunteer, or participatory science groups, have existed independently across the Lake Erie Basin for years. Dozens of these groups regularly collect data from streams and shorelines across the region.
Volunteer science has immense potential to improve our approach to water resource management. However, lack of standardized methods as well as limited organizational visibility and credibility have often meant that their data are not considered in decision-making processes. As a result, volunteer science groups have historically struggled to have their voices heard in water resource governance, management, planning, and research conversations.
In 2020, Cleveland Water Alliance and a collaboration of community foundations launched the Lake Erie Volunteer Science Network (LEVSN) to unite these groups into a regional network.
LEVSN works to fill critical information gaps and inspire action for the benefit of the Lake Erie region by:
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The Network has completed its second fully-standardized field season and is well into its third. The eleven active groups participating in 2023 leveraged their combined 1,300 data points with the Network’s standardized analysis tools to conduct individual assessments of the health of 20 local watersheds, a collaborative evaluation of the health of the Lake Erie Basin, and documentation of these analyses in a highly rigorous field season report.
First joining LEVSN in 2020, the Toledo collaboration ramped up its activities in 2022 with a year of careful planning and shadowing supported by the Greater Toledo Community Foundation. "That year was crucial," Kieffer recalls. "We spent time understanding each organization's capacities and goals. For instance, Metroparks Toledo was interested in monitoring sites upstream and downstream of their restoration projects. The Toledo Zoo had passionate teenagers eager to get involved weekly. This groundwork allowed us to tailor our approach while still meeting the broader LEVSN goals."
This thoughtful start has paid dividends. In just two years, the program has grown from a small group of hand-picked volunteers to an open community initiative. "We now have volunteers ranging from families with preschoolers to retirees," Kieffer shares with enthusiasm. "It's incredible to see how accessible and engaging this program can be for people of all ages."
The CWAT program is more than just a feel-good community activity: it's rigorous participatory work that fills critical data gaps.
"The data we're collecting is of high quality," Kieffer emphasizes. "We're seeing interest from universities and government agencies who recognize the value of this expanded monitoring capacity."
CWAT follows a standardized approach developed by LEVSN called the Lake Erie Baseline Assessment Framework (LEBAF). This ensures that data collected across different sites and by different groups can be compared and integrated, telling a larger story about the health of Lake Erie watersheds.
"We've even decided to increase our sampling frequency to twice a month," Kieffer notes. "The minimum requirement is monthly, but our volunteers are so engaged that we're able to collect more data, giving us a more detailed picture of what's happening in our waterways."
CWAT is already yielding insights that could shape future water management strategies. High conductivity levels across monitored sites have prompted the team to expand into macroinvertebrate monitoring, providing a more comprehensive picture of aquatic ecosystem health.
"Conductivity is a measure of what's dissolved in the water," Kieffer explains. "High levels can create stress for aquatic organisms. By adding macroinvertebrate monitoring, we can directly observe how these conditions might be affecting aquatic life."
This adaptive approach demonstrates the power of community-driven water quality monitoring. As volunteers become more familiar with their monitoring sites, they're not just collecting data – they're asking questions and driving the direction of the research.
Perhaps most importantly, LEVSN and CWAT are changing the narrative around water quality issues in the region. In an area where tensions between agricultural and urban interests have sometimes run high, the program is proving to be a unifying force.
"The Maumee River watershed is about 85% agricultural land," Kieffer points out. "Historically, there's been a tendency to blame one group or another for water quality issues. But this program is showing that we're all in this together."
Rather than pointing fingers, LEVSN is inviting everyone to be part of the solution. "It's about saying, 'Let's all work together to understand what's happening in our waterways,'" Kieffer says. "When we're out monitoring, we often have people stopping to ask what we're doing. There's a real hunger for knowledge and a desire to get involved."
As CWAT enters its third year of standardized data collection, the excitement is palpable. "We're set up to be successful long-term," Kieffer reflects. "It's an awesome feeling to know we're building something that could have real, lasting impact."
The potential applications of this data are vast. From informing local restoration efforts to contributing to broader understanding of Lake Erie's health, the work of these community members is laying the groundwork for more effective water resource management.
"What's really exciting is the potential for long-term trend analysis," Kieffer adds. "As we continue to collect data year after year, we'll be able to see how our waterways are changing over time. This kind of long-term dataset is invaluable for understanding the impacts of climate change, land use changes, and conservation efforts."
LEVSN is beginning to enable local groups, like the collaboration led by Partners for Clean Streams, to plug into the broader Lake Erie research and management community. As the community engagement arm of Cleveland Water Alliance’s Smart Lake Erie Watershed, the data collected by these local groups can be blended with those collected by sensor networks, research sampling, and more to improve our understanding of and decision making around our most precious water resource.
Since 2020, LEVSN participation has more than tripled and the network has partnered with professional scientists and decision makers to create a robust program that can fill data gaps and inform management efforts across the Lake Erie Basin. Want to learn more about how you can get involved in this exciting initiative?
You'll hear from experts about the Lake Erie Baseline Assessment Framework (LEBAF) and explore how volunteer-driven monitoring can provide credible, actionable insights for water resource management.
You'll learn about:
Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a movement that's making waves in water quality monitoring and community empowerment.
Together, we can turn the tide on water quality challenges and create a brighter future for our communities and ecosystems. The power to understand and protect our precious water resources is in our hands – will you join us?
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