Free calendar available from Water Board’s Clean Water Team

Were you aware that this is the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation? Or that April 27 is Save the Frog Day? That May is American Wetlands Month?

How about those important free fishing days, July 6 and Sept. 7, when the state lets casual anglers toss in a line without having to buy a fishing license?

The Clean Water Team at the State Water Resources Control Board put together a 2013 online calendar so you can remember those dates and many more water and environmental dates and events. The calendar is free and available only on the Internet.

The calendar is available in two versions, one with visible interactive links to the organizations sponsoring the events and one without. It features pictures of volunteer citizen monitors taking water samples around the state, aquatic wildlife and plein air images by California artist Brad Hicks.

The calendar serves two purposes: It highlights the importance of California’s surface waters, and celebrates the state’s citizen monitors who volunteer to improve and protect water quality by using applied science to monitor the state’s waterways.

The 2013 California Citizen Monitoring Calendar can be found for free at waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/swamp/docs/cwt/volunteer/calendar2013.pdf or with visible URLs at waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/swamp/docs/cwt/volunteer/calendar2013urls.pdf.

The Clean Water Team is the citizen monitoring program of the State Water Board. The team’s Citizen Monitoring Coordinators work statewide to provide technical assistance and guidance, training and loans of equipment to volunteers in citizen monitoring programs and watershed stewardship organizations.

Citizen volunteers work through a variety of organizations to monitor water quality in streams and rivers throughout the state. Activities include collecting water quality data, evaluating fish habitat, counting birds, or making visual observations of stream health. Community and resource managers use monitoring information to better protect California’s waters.

For more information or to volunteer for a community-based monitoring program, visit the Clean Water Team’s Web page at waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/swamp/cwt_volunteer.shtml. Follow the State Water Boards on Twitter at twitter.com/h2oboardsnews.