Testing is better when we work together!

Posted on by Emelia Duguay

Since 2015, Water Rangers has helped hundreds of volunteers across Canada to collect, store, and share water quality data. While we’re incredibly proud of this accomplishment, we also recognize countless other organizations have been working hard alongside us to help make this happen. Two of these organizations are Quinte Conservation Authority and County Sustainability Group (CSG), who we’re delighted to be featuring in this post! 

It all started when Don Ross, a CSG member, received Quinte Conservation’s newsletter back in February. Don and other CSG members have been using our testkits to test in the Bay of Quinte area since 2017. They are some of our most frequent testers; Don and his wife, Heather, have uploaded over 430 observations to our platform alone! As you can probably imagine, testing this much requires a lot of supplies, and the costs of this eventually start to add up. Plus, since CSG spends almost 100% of what they make each year on their bursary program, affording supplies is sometimes challenging. 

A picture Don uploaded of a location he tests at frequently in Milford, Ontario! Milford is located within the Quinte Conservation area.

So, when Don read in Quinte Conservation’s newsletter that they could potentially leverage funding to support stewardship programs in the area, he decided to jump on the opportunity. Don responded to the newsletter, asking if Quinte Conservation could assist CSG with the costs of restocking their dissolved oxygen and pH testing supplies specifically. Quinte Conservation’s Education and Stewardship coordinator, Maya Navrot, responded almost immediately, saying they would indeed be able to make this happen! 

Supporting CSG’s water monitoring efforts would end up being incredibly valuable this year since Quinte Conservation had to reduce some of their own water sampling efforts because of COVID. Don and other CSG members upload their data to our platform, which Quinte Conservation can conveniently check since it’s all open access. In the end, Quinte Conservation and CSG were both able to assist each other, and we look forward to watching this partnership grow for years to come.