Service Project Update: Trout Stream Sensitivity Study

 

The Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study (VTSSS), previously scheduled in 2020, is rescheduled for this April 2021.   

 

The study is designed to track the effects of acidic deposition and other factors that determine water quality and related ecological conditions in Virginia’s native trout streams.

 

This is a community science/monitoring conservation project performed in coordination with the University of Virginia (UVA), the Virginia Council of Trout Unlimited, and locally with the Smith River Trout Unlimited (SRTU). Volunteers will have the opportunity to contribute to one of Virginia’s most significant and historical environmental studies.

 

Volunteer participants, aka Collectors, will sign up to collect water samples from 20 different stream sites assigned to SRTU. (A list of collection sites is attached.) Collectors will contact the Collection Coordinator and indicate which site/s they can sample. Collectors will retrieve collection equipment and materials from the local coordinator, make observations, collect samples, and fill out data sheets during the designated window dates, and return samples to the coordinator for shipment/delivery to the UVA laboratory. The primary sample collection window is April 24 – April 30.

 

The local points of contact to participate in the water sample collection are Eric Tichay, SRTU President, email: erictichay@yahoo.com and Wayne Kirkpatrick, Collection Coordinator, email wynbtyk@embarqmail.com.

 

IMPORTANT! Volunteers that signed up to participate last year in 2020 please contact Eric Tichay to let him know if you will participate in the April 24 – 30, 2021 sampling collection. We also need to account for the supplies issued last year. Thank you.

 

For more information about the study visit the UVA Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study 2021website.

Photo by Kathy Fell: Sample Collection kit for the Study