(Above) Volunteers during a 2025 habitat assessment monitoring training in Plum City.
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A very happy new year to our friends and partners across Wisconsin!
As we begin the new year, we want to take a moment to recognize the WAV network’s efforts to monitor and steward our streams and rivers in 2025. It’s the strength of our volunteer community and the spirit of partnership that makes our volunteer monitoring program impactful in Wisconsin.
During the 2025 monitoring season, WAV program staff at Extension partnered with 80 WAV Coordinators and AIS partners across the state to support over 450 stream volunteers and their monitoring team members to help monitor our state’s streams and rivers.
WAV staff and partners…
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Hosted 19 baseline and habitat stream monitoring trainings across Wisconsin, teaching volunteers in the field how to measure five important elements of stream health and important habitat features for fish.
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Hosted 14 aquatic invasive species trainings through our Project RED program, teaching volunteers how to identify and monitor aquatic invasive species in their local streams.
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| Hosted our annual AIS Snapshot Day event, training over 100 volunteers to search 130 sites on rivers, lakes, and wetlands for aquatic invasive species.
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| Collected 988 nutrient samples across 181 stream sites, helping to monitor phosphorus levels in streams during the growing season.
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Monitored 494 stream sites for baseline water quality and made 2,649 visits to these stream sites during the season.
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| Deployed, monitored, and retrieved thermistors at 154 stream sites to gather hourly water temperature data.
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Assessed 31 streams for the quality of their fish habitat.
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Join us for our fourth Winter Water Talks! |
Join us on Wednesday, February 11th at 12pm for our fourth Winter Water Talk! Webinars are co-hosted by the Water Action Volunteers Program and the Citizen Lake Monitoring Network Program.
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The Great Lakes Eagle Health Project (formerly the Wisconsin Bald Eagle Bio-sentinel Program) is a collaborative program that has monitored bald eagle contaminant levels in WI since 1990. The purpose of this project is to monitor exposure patterns of both legacy and emerging contaminants in nestling bald eagles as well as illustrate the utility of bald eagles as monitoring tools for contaminant exposure and ecosystem health. Data from this monitoring program suggest eaglets along the middle section of the Wisconsin River have elevated levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) compared to other populations. Other emerging contaminants that have been detected include industrial compounds (phthalates) and endocrine disrupting chemicals (Bisphenol-A). This project provides natural resource managers with a snapshot of contaminant exposure within a given ecosystem. We have illustrated that bald eagles can be useful and reliable indicators of contaminant exposure, environmental change, and ecosystem health.
SPEAKER BIO
Sean earned a B.S. Environmental Science and Biology from University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and a Master’s in Environmental Toxicology from Colorado State University. Sean has been with the WI DNR for over 25 years, serving as a Toxicologist in both the Wildlife Management and Fisheries Management programs. He has studied both legacy and emerging contaminants in a wide variety of species including bald eagles, loons, water birds, songbirds, waterfowl, furbearers, small mammals, and fish.
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Registration is Now Open for the WI Lakes and Rivers Convention! |
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| | Wisconsin Lakes and Rivers Convention
“Decades of Dedication”
April 15-17, 2026
Stevens Point, WI
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Mark your calendars for the 2026 Lakes and Rivers Partnership Convention!
This year's conventions will celebrate the long-term programs and the accumulated actions of countless people that have persevered through many decades.
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Register to learn from and meet respected experts, grassroots organizers, and passionate water advocates (including WAV staff)! Attend talks such as "Protecting Paradise in the Driftless: How the Kickapoo Valley Reserve Came to Be" and "No Place Like Home: Aquatic Invertebrate Microhabitat Associations." You can check out the full convention agenda here to see all the amazing offerings.
The convention is open to everyone, from water professionals to folks who simply love Wisconsin's waterways. We hope you will join us!
This annual convention is brought to you by the Wisconsin Lakes and Rivers Partnership.
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Sign up for a Master Naturalist Training this Year! |
(Above) WAV staff teaching a baseline stream monitoring training during a WI Master Naturalist course at Upham Woods.
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Registration is now open for the 2026 Master Naturalist training season. Hurry to register as spots fill up quickly!
Master Naturalist training is a 40-hour series of sessions and field experiences that presents a consistent, statewide perspective on Wisconsin’s natural history, ecological processes, and conservation issues. Many WAV volunteers are also Master Naturalists - this is a great way to expand your knowledge about Wisconsin's waterways!
Master Naturalist trainings are open to all adults over 18 years of age with a $300 registration fee. Reduced registration fees are available for those facing financial hardships during the registration process.
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| The Water Action Volunteers (WAV) stream monitoring program is an ongoing partnership between the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and nearly 50 local partner groups and organizations.
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