Water Quality

Natural landscapes work to filter and purify rainwater as makes it way to streams, but farms and developed areas tend to not only move water more quickly to streams, often through pipes and ditches, but also tend to add fine sediment, nutrients, and chemicals to runoff. Inputs of these contaminants can cause various problems including silting of steelhead spawning gravels, algal and bacterial overgrowth, anaerobic conditions, foul odors, fish kills, etc., and can lead to loss of diversity and proliferation of invasive species. There are many things we can do to lessen the effects of human activity on water quality including rainwater infiltration and groundwater recharge, erosion control, sedimentation basins, improving riparian buffers, reducing chemical use, and better avoiding contaminant releases. In order to best apply these solutions, and best allocate limited resources, it is necessary to collect good data.