In 1985, a small group of passionate community members gathered along the shores of Chesapeake Bay tributaries, monitoring kits and clipboards in hand, ready to collect powerful scientific data. With over 100,000 stream miles throughout Virginia, the Alliance recognized major gaps in where agencies were able to collect data. To fill these gaps, the Alliance started the RiverTrends monitoring program, providing training and equipment to community members to collect high quality, credible water quality data. RiverTrends collects monthly samples throughout the year for temperature, water clarity, pH and dissolved oxygen. All monitors share their data on the CMC Data Explorer, which houses water quality data available to the public.

This monitoring effort was, and still is, rooted in the belief that informed and involved community members are essential in tracking the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This year, we celebrate 40 years of water quality monitoring through RiverTrends and the over 800 dedicated volunteers who have participated in collecting water quality data over the years!

 

Looking Back

RiverTrends has ebbed and flowed in size, monitoring locations, and parameters collected but the one constant has been the passion of our volunteer monitors to be stewards of our rivers. Our techniques and databases have modernized, but it’s always fun to take a look back at where we began.

August 1985. This is one of the first records we have of RiverTrends monitoring sites.

 

Various monitoring site locations around the watershed, ~1987

 

Monitoring in January, 1994. The ice was thick enough to stand on! This isn’t something we frequently see in Virginia anymore as water temperatures continue to rise.

 

Monitoring Today

As we honor this milestone, we celebrate the spirit and dedication of the RiverTrends community. Some of our monitors are brand new, while others have been collecting data for over a decade. Currently, RiverTrends supports over 130 volunteer monitors collecting baseline water quality data throughout the Chesapeake Bay portion of Virginia and Maryland, working with 22 partner organizations.

To all of our volunteer monitors who have ventured out every month to collect data, we thank you! Whether it has been calibrating a pH meter over your kitchen sink, processing bacteria simples in your basement, or donning waders to collect your sample from ‘mid-channel’, you have helped build a stronger, connected community that inspires us all to keep doing this important work for our watershed.

In recent years, the Alliance’s monitoring efforts have expanded to include the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative, bacteria monitoring in DC, and Restoration Monitoring. Visit this blog post to learn more.

 

Test Your Knowledge: Trivia Questions

Temperature

Question: How much has the Chesapeake Bay water temperature risen in the last 30 years?
Answer: 1.8ºF. That might not seem like a lot, but many native plants and animals are already at the end of their temperature ranges, and they can’t just easily move to cooler areas. These minor shifts in temperatures can have immense impacts!

pH

Question: When the pH of a stream drops too low, it becomes more acidic. What happens to mollusks like clams, snails, and mussels when this happens?

Answer: When the pH of a stream falls below its typical threshold (6.5), mollusks can’t build strong shells because acidic water reduces the availability of calcium carbonate, which mollusks need for strong shells. Their shells may become brittle or even start to dissolve!

Water Clarity

Question: Which underwater plant needs clear, shallow water, lots of sunlight, sunlight, and is often used as an indicator of good water clarity in estuaries?

Answer: Eelgrass, a type of submerged aquatic vegetation. Its presence indicates clean, clear water, and it plays a vital role in the ecosystem by stabilizing sediments, providing habitat, and acting as a carbon sink by absorbing and storing more carbon than it releases.

Dissolved Oxygen

Question: Just like land-dwellers, the plants and animals of the Chesapeake Bay need oxygen to survive. Underwater, oxygen is present in dissolved form. What is an area called when there is no oxygen present in the water?

Answer: A “dead zone”. The Chesapeake Bay’s dead zone of 2024 was moderate in size following a wetter-than-average spring. The dead zone of 2023 was the smallest ever recorded since monitoring began in 1985, due to an abnormally dry spring and lower nutrient runoff from low river flows.

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