Stream Monitoring Citizen Science & Training Opportunities, March

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Photo: FMN Janet Quinn, Hidden Pond stream monitoring

*NVSWCD Workshop*
Wolftrap Creek Stream Monitoring Workshop
When: Saturday, March 2, 9:00am-12:00pm
Where: Wolftrap Creek Stream Valley Park/Foxstone Park, Vienna

Join NVSWCD for our first stream monitoring workshop of the spring season. This site features a small, shallow stream which usually has a good number of beetles. Learn more and register for this workshop and others here.

Accotink Creek Spring Stream Monitoring
When: Saturday, March 9, 9:30-11:30am
Where: Lake Accotink Park, Springfield

GET YOUR BRAIN WET! Join Friends of Lake Accotink Park and Friends of Accotink Creek for a rewarding and fun time for adults and children who enjoy helping our parks and environment by identifying and counting stream critters to document the health of the stream. It’s fun for the whole family to learn what’s in the water by seeing and counting stream critters. The critter count is ever-changing, but volunteers have made some exciting finds, including small crayfish. Learn more and be sure to register here. 

*NVSWCD Workshop*
Difficult Run Stream Monitoring Workshop
When: Sunday, March 24, 9:00am-12:00pm
Where: Difficult Run Stream Valley Park, Great Falls

This stream site in Great Falls is a short walk through the woods to a river with wide, sandy banks. These trails are very popular with hikers and volunteers often get high water quality scores at this site. Learn more and register for this workshop and others here.

*NVSWCD Workshop*
Big Rocky Run Stream Monitoring Workshop
When: Thursday, March 28, 1:00-4:00pm
Where: Ellanor C. Lawrence Park, Chantilly

This stream monitoring site on Big Rocky Run is located near the historic Cabell’s Mill in Ellanor C. Lawrence Park. This park features great trails with interpretive signage and the stream site is a stone’s throw from Walney Pond, where you may get to see the happy beaver family that lives there. Learn more and register for this workshop and others here.

 

More Training and Stream Monitoring Opportunities

The NoVa Soil & Water Conservation teams are  very excited to contribute their stream data to state and national datasets. If you’d like to see data from all the NVSWCD regional stream monitoring team’s active sites, you can find our organization on the Clean Water Hub.

Geology of the Piedmont Tour, March 9th

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Image: Courtesy of Clifton Institute

Saturday, March 9, 2023
9:00AM – 12:00PM

The Clifton Institute
6712 Blantyre Rd
Warrenton, VA 20187

Cost: FREE

Registration is REQUIRED.

It’s winter and that means that rock season is upon us! This year, it would be nice to branch out and check out a whole new geologic province. The last two years the class took a close look at rocks of the Piedmont Plateau and learned that several times in the geologic past, huge mountain ranges rose up where the Piedmont is today. Where did those mountains go? The sand and silt washed down from those soaring peaks must have gone somewhere and this class is going to find it! Join this tour for a journey off the western edge of the Blue Ridge Anticlinorium and into one of the world’s great thrust/fold belts, the Valley and Ridge Province of the Appalachian Mountains. you will be looking at layers and layers of ancient sediments laid out in a vast river delta. Like the pages of a book, these layers have a fascinating story to tell about life in the Paleozoic.

The tour will be heading out to Front Royal to begin the geology tour this year and making its way up into Fort Valley, stopping along the way. A few of the stops will involve a short hike but nothing too strenuous.

Participants can EITHER meet at Clifton at 9 a.m. and carpool to Front Royal, OR meet the tour in Front Royal around 10 a.m.