Citizen Science Wetland Monitoring in the RDN, April 2021
Following the final year of the RDN and MABRRI’s 5-year agreement, it was decided that longer-term monitoring of the instrumented wetlands would be important to carry forward – allowing for important data to be gathered from the equipment that was installed in 2019 and 2020. Moving forward, in collaboration with two volunteer groups, the Quennell Lake Watershed Stewardship Society (QLWSS) and the Arrowsmith Groundwater Alliance (AGWA), the 6 priority sites will be revisited each quarter (April, July, November, January) to continue identifying seasonal variations at the sites. Additionally, the volunteers from the AGWA will be assisting the MABRRI team with downloading the data at the three instrumented sites in the French Creek and Big Qualicum Water Regions. During each site visit, the data from the piezometers and rain gauge, as well as the photos from the trail cameras will be downloaded.
MABRRI has completed virtual training with volunteers via Zoom on April 12th, to be followed by site visits and data collection over the following week. The data collected will be slightly modified from the data collected over the past year – it will be minorly simplified, capturing the data that has been used to identify changes overtime, including the hydrology, water quality, and vegetation present in the wetland. Further, photo point monitoring will be implemented into the long-term monitoring, which involves taking photos at the exact same location, facing the same direction, during each visit. These photos will document the seasonality these wetlands experience.
The MABRRI team will continue to work with Alan Gilchrist, VIU Geography professor, to analyze and interpret the data collected. All of the data collected in 2021 will be compiled and shared with the RDN. Additionally, an overview of the data collected will be summarized and shared with the public and volunteers.
