Taking the Pulse of Our Streams: Community Water Monitoring 2026

Now entering its third year, the Community Water Monitoring Initiative continues to grow, bringing together stewardship groups from across the region to monitor and protect local waterways. 

What is the Community Water Monitoring Initiative?

Launched in 2024, the Community Water Monitoring Initiative (CWMI) brings together stewardship groups from across the region to monitor watershed health using consistent, science-based methods aligned with provincial standards. By collecting comparable data across multiple watersheds, the program supports informed decision-making and helps improve our understanding of how local streams respond to pressures such as climate change, land use change, development, and other environmental stressors. 

The initiative builds on the long-standing monitoring efforts of the Beaufort Watershed Stewards and Millard Piercy Watershed Stewards, whose experience helped shape the program. Since its launch, the Morrison Creek Streamkeepers, the Perseverance Creek Streamkeepers of the Cumberland Community Forest Society, the Tsolum River Restoration Society, the Little River Enhancement Society, and the Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society have joined the initiative. 

Project Watershed coordinates the program by providing training, equipment, technical support, and centralized data management. Volunteers collect measurements of five key water quality indicators (temperature, turbidity, pH, specific conductivity, and dissolved oxygen) during summer low-flow conditions and the first fall flush each year. 

The CWMI is supported by members of the Comox Valley Conservation Partnership, with funding from the Comox Valley Community Foundation, the City of Courtenay, and the Comox Valley Regional District‘s Rural Community Grant Program. 

What have we been up to recently?

Last year, stewardship groups coordinated by Project Watershed completed another successful monitoring season, capturing both summer low-flow and first fall flush conditions. Together, these observations are expanding the CWMI’s regional baseline and improving our understanding of watershed conditions across the region. While it is still too early to draw conclusions about long-term trends, the growing dataset will provide an increasingly valuable foundation for future analysis. 

CWMI Training Fall 2025 ~ M. Ai-Li

Volunteers monitoring at Glen Urquhart ~ C. Doucet

What’s happening next?

This summer, participating stewardship groups will collect water quality data during a five-week monitoring period beginning the week of July 27, and we are looking for volunteers to help with this work. Volunteers will visit multiple sites within their watersheds each week to capture low-flow stream conditions. Most monitoring shifts take between one and three hours, depending on the number of sites and travel time between locations. 

Current 2026 summer monitoring schedules are as follows: 

• Project Watershed (Glen Urquhart and Mallard Creeks) — Tuesday afternoons 
• Morrison Creek Streamkeepers (Morrison & Arden Creeks) — Wednesday afternoons
• Perseverance Creek Streamkeepers (Lower Perseverance Creek) — Wednesday mornings 
• Little River Enhancement Society (Little River) — Thursday mornings 
• Tsolum River Restoration Society (Tsolum River and tributaries) — Thursday afternoons 
• Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society (Brooklyn Creek) — Friday mornings 
• Millard Piercy Watershed Stewards (Millard & Piercy Creeks) — To be confirmed 
• Beaufort Watershed Stewards (multiple streams) — To be confirmed 

To prepare for the monitoring season, Project Watershed will host two volunteer training sessions in early July (July 16, 6–8 PM or July 17, 9–11 AM). The sessions will cover the same material, and participants are welcome to register for whichever date is most convenient.  

Please contact Casey Doucet at casey.doucet@projectwatershed.ca if you’re unable to attend either training session but are still interested in participating.