By Amelia Rule—
MUNCIE, IN—Are you interested in learning about water quality and monitoring the conditions of local East Central Indiana waterways? Please join us at a free educational event, organized by Delaware County’s Soil and Water District (SWCD). Completion of this Hoosier Riverwatch certification course will leave you— a certified Hoosier Riverwatch volunteer—able to conduct tests, collect data and contribute to the statewide water quality database thirty years in the making. Branching from Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Hoosier Riverwatch has been engaging Indiana citizens in becoming active stewards of Indiana’s valuable water resources since 1996. They’ve made it their mission to involve citizens through watershed education, water monitoring and clean-up activities. This is an opportunity for you to participate in that citizen science.
You are encouraged to complete this workshop for your own purposes, but SWCD does have a long-term goal. An ongoing project aimed at improving water quality involves monitoring the conditions of four critical water bodies within the watershed of the Upper Mississinewa River. Our project manager, Flatland Resources, would like to recruit a few volunteers to help to gather water quality data from these sites on a quarterly basis. They will accept short and long term volunteers, but would love to find a long term volunteer or two. If that sounds like you, please reach out to Amelia at Flatland Resources. Monitoring supplies would be provided to these volunteers; they will only need to have their own transportation and to have completed this Hoosier Riverwatch course. Whether you are interested in volunteering with us or not, we do hope to see you at this free educational event.
Instructed by the Muncie Bureau of Water Quality’s macroinvertebrate biologist Sam Gradle, this workshop can support up to 15 people. Weather permitting, we will have an outdoor portion at McVey woods following a classroom setting. Please dress accordingly. In partnership with Red-tail Land Conservancy, we will meet at the Purdue Davis Agriculture Center, 6230 IN-1, Farmland, IN 47340 on June 24, 2026 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch will be provided. Participants must be 18 years & older. You can register for this free workshop by clicking the link below or by scanning the QR code. https://appurl.io/QE6iiuTSAm
Questions? Please direct them to Amelia Rule at Flatland Resources (arule@flatlandresources.com or 765-273-7044) or Emily Grant at Red-tail Land Conservancy (emily@fortheland.org or 765-288-2587).
Amelia Rule is Landscape Manager at Flatland Resources.
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