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Web resources for watersheds and teaching outdoors

 

 

Housatonic River Restoration, Inc. website provides information on education and restoration efforts at: www.restorehousatonic.com

 

The Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) a non-profit watershed protection group that works to preserve the natural character and environmental health of the Housatonic River: www.hvathewatershedgroup.org/housatonicFactSheet.htm

 

“Know your watershed” website encourages local partnerships to protect watersheds.  This site also has a national watershed library: www.ctic.purdue.edu/KYW

 

“Surf your watershed” website from the Environmental Protection Agency helps locate your watershed and relevant information:www.cfpub.epa.gov/surf/

 

The Nature Conservancy has a website with general information on the Berkshire Taconic Landscape at www.lastgreatplaces.org/berkshire

 

Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) is an international, interdisciplinary water education program.  The website for Project WET includes a sample activity (“The Incredible Journey”) that focuses on water and the water cycle.  It also provides state coordinators and links to other resources.

www.projectwet.org

 

General water characteristics and information on water use and ground water / surface water can be found at the USGS “Water Science for Schools” website.  This site also has an interactive area where students can give opinions and participate in questionnaires.  The galleries section has pictures, charts and maps that are helpful in teaching and learning about water science.

www.ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/index.html

 

The Clean Water Network is an organization that provides information on river protections and the Clean Water Act.  www.cwn.org


 

Specific information on stream and river classification can be found at http://ceed.wsu.edu/watersheds/Watershed_Education/river_stream.htm

Center for environmental education at Washington State University

 

The US Geological Service has an expansive amount of information available at numerous websites:

 

A detailed fact sheet on acid rain is at:

www.pubs.usgs.gov/gip/acidrain/2.html

A new fact sheet on mercury is at:

www.water.usgs.gov/pubs/fs/fs-016-03/index.html

An index of numerous fact sheets on the theme of natural resources is at:

www.water.usgs.gov/wid/index-resources.html

 

Information on Macroinvertebrate sampling is at the Center for Environmental Education Washington State University: www.ceed.wsu.edu/restoration/Bioengineering/Biomonitoring.html

 

The city of Boulder, Colorado and the USGS have a website on water quality monitoring that provides clear and concise fact sheets with explanations of water quality terms and testing methods.  This information can be found at:

www.bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/watershed/wqterms.html

 

The Massachusetts Riverways Program provides technical assistance and outreach on aspects of river, stream and watershed protection, restoration and stewardship, including assisting “Adopt-a-Stream” groups and Stream teams.  Further information is at www.state.ma.us/dfwele/river/riv_toc.htm

 

 

      Conducting a search (ex.: Google) will yield hundreds of thousands of related websites.  It is helpful to do one search (for example, watersheds) and then a separate search within the results (for example, Massachusetts).  This method will decrease the amount of returned sites.  Many of the above mentioned sites link to other helpful sites.  In particular, the EPA, USGS, and CWN have many accessible links that logically connect to relevant information.