Friends of Gualala River Protecting the Gualala River watershed and the species living within it
Friends of Gualala River is collaborating with The Stream Team and Redwood Coast Land Conservancy in a citizen science water quality monitoring project at the Gualala estuary. The Stream Team is a collective of volunteers from Chico led by Timmarie Hammill. The Team comes to the area for quarterly monitoring and training of volunteers in basic water quality monitoring techniques.
In October, 2022, participants celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act, just in time for the disturbing recent news that the Gualala River Watershed Council is preparing data for Gualala Redwood Timber to submit in support of de-listing the North Fork of the Gualala River from the Clean Water Act. The river has been listed as impaired for temperature and sediment since the 1990s, threatening salmonid populations. It has not recovered from these conditions, so de-listing the North Fork makes no sense legally or environmentally.
The Stream Team monitoring is designed to introduce the public to basic hands-on techniques in collecting water data including water temperature, oxygen content, salinity, sediment, and flow rate as a means to raise awareness of water quality issues in the estuary.
