What is Community-Based Water Monitoring?

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Community-Based Monitoring (or CBM) enlists the help of volunteers to collect scientific data.

 

CBM is a useful way to collect scientific water quality information about a watershed, especially when there is limited government or professional capacity to do environmental monitoring within a certain area.

 

CBM is founded in the idea that we can't rely on our governments or industry to do everything.  Instead of a top-down approach, CBM tackles environmental issues from the bottom up.
 

CBM connects people to their environment through hands-on field work, and makes water quality data more accessible and ready to be used for local decision-making.

 

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The Lake Windermere Ambassadors have been collecting water quality data with the help of community volunteers since 2010. 

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The Lake Windermere Ambassadors began as the Lake Windermere Project, an innovative 5-year pilot project to collect baseline lake data from 2005-2010.

 

The data collected by the Lake Windermere Project was used to inform the BC Ministry of Environment's Water Quality Objectives for Lake Windermere (2010), which is currently referenced by both the Lake Windermere Ambassadors and the Columbia Lake Stewardship Society to determine the quality of both headwaters lakes.
 

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