Kensington Conservancy looking for Water Rangers this summer

The Kensington Conservancy is looking for volunteers, or "Water Rangers", to help test the water quality in Lake Huron and other local bodies of water.

Volunteers will receive a test kit to use for the season at their selected testing site.

Testing will take place once a month from May to September.

The Kensington Conservancy press release is included below.

The Kensington Conservancy is pleased to launch our Water Quality Monitoring Program!

Beginning this summer, The Kensington Conservancy will be starting a community science program to measure the water quality at sites throughout the St. Joseph Channel and on our protected preserves. We are embarking on this project to address the large gap in water quality data that exists for this area and to inspire people to establish their own connection to water and become involved with environmental stewardship.

We are encouraging community members to sign up to be a “Water Ranger” and assist us with testing the water in Lake Huron and other local rivers, streams and inland lakes. The Kensington Conservancy has purchased easy to use Compact Freshwater Test Kits and secchi discs from the Water Rangers for volunteers to use to obtain water quality information. The test kits will measure water temperature, conductivity, pH, alkalinity, hardness and chlorine levels, while the secchi discs will measure water clarity. Each volunteer will receive their own test kit to use for the season at their selected testing site.

Water sampling is important for overall ecosystem health - especially when a waterbody is used for recreational purposes. Testing water becomes vital in avoiding health risks, algae blooms, temperature changes, high turbidity, and invasive species. Our goal is to obtain a baseline measure of the health of local water bodies that are associated with The Kensington Conservancy’s nature preserves and the surrounding area. Testing will take place at least once per month between the months of May and September. All of the data collected will be housed within the Water Rangers database https://waterrangers.ca/ and within the Great Lakes DataStream.

The program is made possible through a partnership with the Water Rangers, a not-for-profit organization that creates accessible water-quality monitoring tools and data systems to support community-based water monitoring and environmental stewardship, Lake Huron North, an organization that encourages collaboration and coordination between local watershed-focused activities in the St. Marys River and West North Channel of Lake Huron, and the Great Lakes DataStream, an open access platform for sharing information on freshwater health. It brings together water quality datasets collected by monitoring groups throughout the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Basin.

If you are interested in becoming a Water Ranger, please contact Corinne at [email protected]. She will be happy to assist you in selecting a water testing site and training you how to use your water testing kit. For more information, visit our website.

The Kensington Conservancy is a land trust and a registered charity that aims to protect ecologically sensitive land in the St. Joseph Channel area by creating nature preserves and holding conservation easements. To date, over 900 acres of wetlands and significant wildlife habitat have been protected. For more information, The Kensington Conservancy can be reached at 705-782-2200 or [email protected]. Please visit www.kensingtonconservancy.org for information about volunteer opportunities and upcoming events.