Grant Awarded for Wolf Creek Monitoring

Wolf Creek Community Alliance (WCCA) in Grass Valley, Calif. has been awarded a $28,000 grant from the Sierra Nevada Alliance to expand its water quality monitoring program on Wolf Creek. The Alliance currently monitors 12 sites for turbidity, acidity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity and nutrients. The new funding will allow sampling to include arsenic, bacteria, macro-invertebrate identification, and stream walks (which broadly characterize specific creek reaches.) "We hope to get insight into the effects of land use in the area," said BJ Schmidt, the Alliance's monitoring coordinator. Monitoring the creek lays the scientific foundation for all preservation and restoration projects."These funds are a welcome help," said Rick Sanger, president of WCCA's board of directors. "We've been funding water monitoring for 12 months through donations and membership dues, but could not have kept it going much longer."