---
title: Doing It Yourself
description: "## Summary Community-based and volunteer watershed monitoring is a practical, cost-effective approach to gathering data about your watershed. This page discusses the advantages and considerations of self-directed assessment and monitoring programs. --- If you are unable to interest a university…"
url: "https://aml-connect.org/aml-knowledge-base/doing-it-yourself/"
updated: "2026-03-13"
category: Watershed Tools and Methods / Assessing the Watershed / Investigating the Watershed
---

# Doing It Yourself

## Summary

Community-based and volunteer watershed monitoring is a practical, cost-effective approach to gathering data about your watershed. This page discusses the advantages and considerations of self-directed assessment and monitoring programs.

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If you are unable to interest a university or high school in testing the water, consider doing it yourself Many grassroots groups and watershed partnerships-such as the Isaak Walton League-have members who have at least some college chemistry and/or biology training and are more than capable of gathering baseline information on flow rates, fish habitat conditions, acidity, and other parameters. Check to see if there is a volunteer monitoring program in your watershed. These programs are usually staffed by trained nonpro­fessional citizen members who are usually well-organized and operate under rigorous quality control guidelines. Many of the organizations take water quality samples and assess stream and lake conditions on a periodic basis.

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## Related Pages

- [Collecting Data](/docs/collecting-data) -- How to organize data collection
- [Training the Field Volunteers](/docs/training-the-field-volunteers) -- Preparing volunteers for field work
- [Developing a Monitoring Plan](/docs/developing-a-monitoring-plan) -- Structuring your monitoring program

## Source and Last Reviewed

Source: AMR Clearinghouse (amrclearinghouse.org). Migrated to AML-Connect. Last Reviewed: 2026-03-13.

**Tags:** assessment, monitoring, volunteer, practitioner