Throughout the United States, communities are coming together to help out with saving its main source of living: water.  Without it, we do not have anything to cook our food in, drink, bathe or do basic and necessary household chores.  Other communities, such as fish, macroinvertebrates and many other species of wildlife, would not have any place to live.  Many programs have been springing up throughout many states in order for the communities to get involved and save the one thing that should mean the most to them: their watersheds.  One of those programs is known as the Save Our Streams Program.

 

Save Our Streams (SOS) is a national watershed education and outreach program which has been going on for 40 years.  It was started in 1969, and was created by the Izaak Walton League of America.  This program taught volunteers, educators, professionals and students how to monitor, restore and protect not only their surrounding streams, but also the nation's streams, rivers and watersheds.  Throughout these 40 years, volunteers have spent countless hours collecting and anazlying samples from the collection site, identifying the problems and coming up with a sitution that could work to fix that problem.

 

Here in West Virginia, we have one of those programs that has helped come up with countless solutions to problems that have arisen.  Through the Division of Water and Waste Management, volunteers all the way to students learn about the ways to protect and preserve the watershed that can be found in the Mountain State.  During the training session, the coordinator gives out the tools of knowledge needed in order to complete the certification procress.  Half of the day is spent inside, but the other is spent outdoors to gain that hands-on experience necessary to understanding what was taught in the classroom.  Here, booklets are also given out for reference if there are any questions that could arise when the group members go out to monitor their first stream by themselves. 

 

Once your group has certification, you can get a stream to monitor throughout the years.  Save Our Streams is something that needs to happen in order to get the watersheds back to the where they used to be before we starting mining and building cities.

 

For more information or if you would like to set up a program for your group, you can contact Tim Craddock.  He is the sole person in charge of this program in West Virginia.  His email is timothy.d.craddock@wv.gov, and he would be happy to help your group out.  You can also visit this website for more information about the program.