3 reasons to support freshwater monitoring this year

1. Your donation supports our open data, and helps ensure our platform continues to be free for everyone

Our open data policy means that anyone can share and use our data.

Many different people and organizations access Water Ranger’s open data platform to further their understanding of water science and water health. Lake associations use our data to track the lakes under their care over the course of years. Students use the data to analyze, graph, and draw conclusions within science, math and social studies curriculums. Even researchers, climate scientists, and land technicians can use the data to support their own external analyses.

With your help, we can continue to offer access to our data platform for free to everyone, for both sharing and accessing water quality data.  

Just as a cloud storage service has overhead costs, so too does the servers our data is stored on. However, we want the data that has been collected by our partners in citizen science to be free forever. Your donations will help with server costs because while our data platform is not free for us, it should always be free for you. It is so important for water and climate data to be easy to access. With your support, we can keep making water data more accessible than ever before.

2. Your donation helps support our network of communities

When you donate to Water Rangers, your money is invested directly into communities across Canada. How exactly, you ask? 

We’ve been working with small organizations and communities across Canada for years, establishing connections and building two-way relationships together. We would not be who we are without this network of communities. Some communities do not have the same agency as others when it comes to being able to afford water quality tools- this can be related to funding, location, and access. We work to provide people with an equitable opportunities to participate in water and climate science.

Your donation allows small communities and organizations to receive free testkits for their seasonal sampling activities. Your donation can help support local environmental efforts, connect young learners with citizen science, and help communities contribute to filling data deficits in our watersheds. 

Your donation will also support improvements to the tools within our testkits. With better tools at our disposal, we can:

• Create more user friendly experiences for people who are new to science
• Provide kids with valuable outdoor learning experiences in communities across Canada
• Provide educators with the training they need to support the future of water monitoring 

3. Your donation is an investment in a community

With every dollar you give, you help purchase water testing tools for a community. This year, we want to equip at least 10 communities with one of our Freshwater Explorer Kits through our fundraising efforts. Each of our Freshwater Explorer Testkits has enough supplies in it to be used by a community for an entire year. Volunteers can use and reuse the supplies that we provide them with. Testkits are really gifts that keeps on giving!

The best part? Our research shows that once people get involved with water quality monitoring, they’re more likely to get involved with other environmental initiatives. This means that your donation will have a ripple effect across the communities that it supports. For us to be able to fight the effects of climate change, we’ll need to inspire a new generation of environmentalists who are ready to take action. By donating to Water Rangers, you can help make that happen!