FOCJC is partnering with the Nature Forwad to conduct habitat assessments and assess macroinvertebrates at one site in Cabin John Creek at Cabin John Local Park. If you want to help, please send an email to monitoring@cabinjohncreek.org and we will send you guidelines and directions to the site.

Training is not required to participate. However, Nature Forward has self paced training classes which help us significantly in identification of the macroinvertebrates creekside.

* Self Paced Training Videos (Nature Forward)

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Our team of volunteer monitors will visit stream sites in April, July, October, and optionally during the winter to conduct habitat assessments and collect and identify “benthic macroinvertebrates” (BMI), small organisms that live in the stream bottoms. Because these organisms exhibit a range of sensitivities to pollutants and stressors, they help us determine the streams’ health. The program identifies aquatic insects to the taxonomic level of family. This gives us a clearer picture of aquatic diversity and stream health than more general identification practices. The ANS program is also unique in that monitors learn to identify the organisms in the field and then release them alive, rather than preserving them in alcohol and sending them to a lab for identification.

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Please visit Nature Forward's Water Quality Monitoring and our Monitoring page for more information or email us at monitoring@cabinjohncreek.org.