Volunteer Watershed Health Monitoring by Local Stakeholders: New Mexico Watershed Watch

Abstract

Volunteers monitor watershed health in more than 700 programs in the US, involving over 400,000 local stakeholders. New Mexico Watershed Watch is a student-based watershed monitoring program sponsored by the state's Department of Game and Fish which provides high school teachers and students with instruction on methods for water quality monitoring, riparian habitat evaluation and watershed planning. Schools monitor small watersheds, assessing watershed health and water quality with an interdisciplinary approach that identifies impacts of land use. Students learn scientifically credible field methodologies to create long term databases on watershed health for use by state and federal agencies. Maps of land use, land ownership, soil stability, topography and human impacts are used in an overlay format to identify priority problem areas. Watershed plans are formulated to improve water quality and restore degraded riparian and upland sites.