Become a citizen water monitor

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Can you spare 4 hours once each month on a Thursday or Saturday morning to help with monitoring Wolf Creek? It’s fun, it’s important, and we’ll train you! Wolf Creek is a major tributary to the Bear River, which flows to the Feather and then into the Sacramento River, whose waters ultimately flow to the San Francisco Bay. Because of the elevation, sun exposure, and diversity of soils, the Wolf Creek watershed once supported very productive and diverse ecosystems. Today, Grass Valley has one of the highest concentrations of abandoned mines in the Sierra, plus tailing piles, placer diggings, old hydraulic mining and factory sites. Development has led to increasing deforestation, areas of impermeable surfaces, erosion, and increased water usage. Volunteer monitors take and test water samples at 20 or more different sites on a monthly basis, and conduct ecological assessments of the creek to describe the watershed conditions which affect the health of the Creek ecosystem. Please join us for hands-on involvement with Wolf Creek and an opportunity to learn about aquatic ecology, water chemistry, and the physical processes of streams.