Our Priorities
Since 1897, ANS members, staff and volunteers have worked to help people in the D.C. region enjoy, learn about, and protect nature. Today, the climate crisis is a fight like no other the environmental movement has experienced. In 2020, ANS adopted the following Priority Campaign Areas to guide our work:
All people deserve access to a healthy environment. We support environmental justice campaigns that intersect with our conservation priorities.
We protect natural places that provide clean drinking water, habitat for fish, birds, insects, and amphibians, and migratory corridors for wildlife.
We advocate for regional reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while promoting natural solutions like tree planting and green infrastructure.
The D.C. region is expected to grow by 1,535,000 people by 2045. Where will our new neighbors live? Where will they learn to love nature?
Community Science: Protecting Our Waters
Our flagship Water Quality Monitoring program is one of the largest and longest-running community science programs in the country. Volunteers (adults and families) learn to monitor 25-30 stream sites in ten watersheds in Maryland and DC. We encourage you to train with us to become a monitor!
Creek Critters® empowers people to check the health of their local streams by finding and identifying small organisms – or critters – called benthic macroinvertebrates living in freshwater streams, and generating stream health reports based on what they find.
Taking Action for Our Environment
Current Campaigns and Actions
Act Now!
Comment on Beltway Expansion
What is Happening?
The 90 pound and 18,000+ page Beltway I-495/I-270 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is out for public comment review until Oct 8, 2020...
Fairfax City Council approves Northfax West Redevelopment
We are outraged over the granting of a special exception which paves the way for the elimination of a living stream and forest. The Council should not have traded away this precious natural space for man-made green infrastructure and stream restorations...
Take Action
at Home
Learn what you can do to help make a difference and have a positive impact on nature in your community.
Conservation
Blog
Read the latest stories, news and Action Alerts on how you can help protect nature throughout the DMV region.
Training &
Workshops
Become empowered through workshops on watershed stewardship, advocacy, and organizing for community action.
Upcoming Events
Join us for upcoming workshops, classes, speakers, and online and in-person events that get you involved in conservation science, stewardship, and advocacy throughout the region.
september, 2021
Event Details
Stream Science at ANS For 25 years, ANS has been teaching the natural history of aquatic ecology and training volunteer stream monitors who track the health of our region’s streams. Learn
Event Details
Stream Science at ANS
For 25 years, ANS has been teaching the natural history of aquatic ecology and training volunteer stream monitors who track the health of our region’s streams. Learn from the experts: study stream science in our introductory classes, and you just might be inspired to become a stream monitor yourself!
FALL 2021 STREAM SCIENCE CLASSES
How to Read Your Stream*
Wednesday, September 22 (7-9:30 pm)
Virtual via Zoom
Learn about the influence of land uses on streams, stream character and dynamics, bank erosion, bar formation, substrate composition, different velocity-depth regimes, and the importance of riffles and riparian vegetation. We will practice assessing stream habitat by using photographs of streams and the forms that monitors fill out in the field.
How to Monitor: Field Workshop*
Sunday, September 26 (1:30-4 pm)
Ten Mile Creek, Boyds, MD
We will visit a healthy stream to practice monitoring techniques and to collect and identify the benthic macroinvertebrates we find.
SELF-PACED ONLINE CLASSES AVAILABLE ANY TIME
Stream Science Introduction:
- Healthy Stream Biology*. An introduction to monitoring and non-insect macroinvertebrates
Advanced Macroinvertebrate Identification Series:
Our advanced classes are perfect for those interested in deepening their knowledge about biological stream monitoring and are taught by instructor Cathy Wiss. Each class runs 45 – 70 minutes and includes extensive photos and videos collected by our own monitoring volunteers and staff, plus several carefully curated recommended videos from other sources.
- Caddisflies
- Beetles
- Megaloptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera
- True Flies
- Damselflies and Dragonflies
- Mayflies
- Stoneflies
- Bonus review session included if you sign up for the full series (15% discount for entire class series ($170 non-members / $102 members, includes a bonus review session).)
REGISTRATION & FEE INFORMATION
Registration required: click here to register online for self-paced classes.
Cost for all classes: each class $25 non-members / $15 ANS members / Free for anyone who has monitored with the ANS program in the last two years.
*These classes are recommended for all volunteer monitors and those interested in joining the program.
Contact cleanstreams@anshome.org for more information.
See the full list of classes on our Water Quality Monitoring Page.
Time
Year Around Event (2021)
CONSERVATION SITE MAP