Please join ANS for this annual family-friendly stream event hosted by The Nature Generation! We’ll walk into the stream to catch critters (macro-invertebrates). Learn how to use the CREEK CRITTERS app to identify what you find and to assess the health of the creek. Wear footwear for standing in shallow water, and download the free CREEK CRITTERS app from the Apple App store or Google Play.

No registration required.

205 E. Hirst Rd, Purcellville, VA 20132. (Adjacent to the Corcoran Brewing Company.)

For more information, please visit: Nature Generation Water Quality Day.

To learn about the Creek Critters app: anshome.org/creek-critters

Discover a local stream! Join ANS Virginia Conservation Advocate Monica Billger and Friends of Accotink Creek for a family-friendly, educational stream valley hike along Long Branch in Fairfax, VA.

During the hike, participants will have a chance to use ANS’s Creek Critters app to find and identify what is living in the stream. Learn about stream health, and how you and your family and friends can help keep drinking water clean.

Please register!

Register here

Registrants will be notified if the event is cancelled due to weather.

Join ANS, Potomac Conservancy, Friends of Sligo Creek, and the Montgomery County Sierra Club Group on June 6th at 6:30 pm for a community meeting on the value of green infrastructure in downtown Silver Spring. You’ll hear from representatives of these groups and from the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection about how important “nature in neighborhoods” is, and what County programs are available to help you and your neighbors reap these benefits. You’ll hear about two programs: Green Streets for public spaces, and Rainscapes which provides rebates for homeowners to bring more nature into their backyards.

Please join us, and bring your MoCo neighbors! Click here to register.

Scott Kratz, director of the 11th Street Bridge Park, will join us for this Conservation Café to tell us about the project. The11th Street Bridge Park is a project of Ward 8 based nonprofit Building Bridges Across the River and will be Washington, D.C.’s first elevated public park located on the piers of the old 11th Street Bridge spanning the Anacostia River: a new venue for healthy recreation; environmental education and the arts. After a seven-month design competition, the design team of OMA+OLIN was selected in October 2014. With the ongoing capital campaign securing more than $15 million to date, the Bridge Park draws on an extensive community outreach and consultative process, anchored by more than 700 stakeholder meetings for design development and impact. Pre-construction began in 2016 and the park is expected to open by late 2019.

Registration $10. All registration fees support ANS Conservation program. REGISTER HERE

Register for each event below.

April 13 – Sarah Anderson, Urban Nature For All: Inclusivity and the Environmental Movement

May 11 – Lim Lyons, What Now? Public Lands and the Environment under Trump

June 8 – Scott Kratz, The 11th Street Bridge Project

NOVA Water Quality Monitoring: Some Answers to your Questions 

How often can a site  be monitored? Not more than 4 times in a year (quarterly).

What does it take to become certified?

1. Be able to identify the critters.
2. Be able to properly demonstrate the field protocol in data collection.

Both 1 and 2 are easy and open book!

Must I be a certified stream monitor? 

No, you can help the existing monitoring teams, too! But  DEQ only accepts data  that comes from certified stream monitors.

What is recommended before taking the certification test?

Take part in at least 2-3 NOVA stream monitoring events before sitting for the certification test. But, you can come on June 10th even if you’ve never monitored before, or if you’ve monitored using Creek Critters! You can be certified if you’ve taken ANS Water Quality Monitoring classes.

Learn about the Accotink Watershed in Fairfax County and explore local stream health! This family-friendly stream engagement event is made possible by a grant from Fairfax Water. Learn how you and your community can improve your local water quality!

Join us and RSVP today!