Outcomes
Snapshot Day 2003 was the third annual one-day citizen volunteer stream monitoring event for the Lake Tahoe and Truckee River watershed. Through this event:

• 250 adult volunteers collected water quality data at 125 distinct monitoring sites.
  
• Volunteers learned about their watershed, water quality issues, how streams function, and how to assess stream health.
  
• In both long and short term, these volunteers became an extra set of eyes and ears that government agencies can count on to ensure that local streams and watersheds are looked after on a regular basis.
  
• Monitoring data will be used in the Lake Tahoe TMDL Project and UC Davis Lake Tahoe Clarity Model and may impact decision-making and policy formation.
  
• Monitoring data will serve as the basis for determining problem areas (potential “hot spots”), protecting local streams, or restoring streams if already degraded.
  
• By learning more and helping to promote environmental stewardship, volunteers create an informed public voice that collectively can influence decisions that affect our environment, and subsequently our water resources.

Background
Snapshot Day, sponsored by the Tahoe-Truckee Clean Water Team - a working group of the Lake Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition (LTEEC), is designed to get community volunteers involved in monitoring the water moving through the Lake Tahoe and Truckee River watersheds. Monitoring locations included tributaries to Lake Tahoe, shoreline and sites within Lake Tahoe, and the Truckee River and its tributaries from Tahoe City to Pyramid Lake near Reno.

Water samples are taken in order to develop a picture of water quality and watershed health at a single point in time. The volunteer monitoring teams, led by Team Leaders who are trained by project staff, professionals and other guest presenters prior to Snapshot Day, test streams for dissolved oxygen, conductivity, pH and temperature. These teams also conduct a visual assessment of weather, water clarity, in-stream flow, streamside vegetation (including mapping presence of invasive weeds) and land use, stream channel modifications, site and type of discharges to stream, presence of algae, litter, foam or oils, erosion, and water color and odor. Finally, each team collects grab samples and takes photos at their monitoring site(s). Water samples are taken back to central meeting locations and measured for sediment particle size, turbidity, nutrients and fecal coliform bacteria. Sponsoring agencies provide all the sampling and monitoring equipment. Written methods have been developed for each of the parameters and the program operates using a state-approved quality assurance project plan. In addition, a written guidance document has been prepared for the Team Leaders, explaining goals of the program, responsibilities of the leaders, and specific instructions for methods and for filling in the data sheets properly. A volunteer appreciation dinner party is in the fall each year and results and data are presented at that time.

This year volunteers in the Tahoe watershed also participated in collecting much needed data for the Lake Tahoe TMDL Project and the UC Davis Lake Tahoe Clarity Model. Water samples were gathered from the mouths of all 63 tributaries in order to analyze the sediment content. Researcher Geoff Schladow from UC Davis will take the samples collected on May 10 and study the quantity and size of sediment particles in the spring runoff from the tributaries entering Lake Tahoe.

Snapshot Day 2003 sponsors include the California State Water Resource Control Board, Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, Lake Tahoe Community College, Lake Tahoe Environmental, Education Coalition (LTEEC), Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Sierra Nevada College, Tahoe Basin AmeriCorps, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Tahoe Research Group, Tahoe Resource Conservation District, Truckee River Watershed Council, University of California Cooperative Extension, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, University of Nevada Reno Electrical Engineering Department, USDA Forest Service, Washoe Storey Conservation District, Waste Not, and the Incline Village General Improvement District.

This article was modified from a press release about this year’s Snapshot Day written by Heather Segale and photos are courtesy of the program. Heather can be reached by phone at 775-832-4150 or email at: segaleh@unce.unr.edu.

To view programs that were highlighted on this site in the past, visit our highlighted program archives.