Roanoke River Project Spring 2026 Training
*THIS SIGNUP PAGE IS FOR CURRENT VOLUNTEERS ALREADY GOING THROUGH THE SPRING 2026 TRAINING SERIES*
The Roanoke River Project (RRP) is a citizen science water monitoring program focusing on the health of the Roanoke River and surrounding streams. The program certifies volunteers to become stream monitors, who then collect and count benthic macroinvertebrates to receive a stream health score. Benthic macroinvertebrates are good ecological indicators that give a snapshot of stream conditions.
Becoming a certified RRP monitor involves attending and completing the following required steps:
- Intro/Orientation Session: This workshop covers stream ecology & water quality, provides an intro to sampling methods and identification of benthic macroinvertebrates, gives a background on the RRP, and expected volunteer time commitment & schedule. Please sign up for one of these prior to attending a stream training workshop.
- Stream Training Workshops: Participants learn sampling protocols in great detail, practice sorting and identifying macroinvertebrates, and build up to taking practice samples and calculating stream health scores. It generally takes 3 or 4 in-stream workshops before volunteers feel ready to take the certification test.
- Certification Session & Site Adoption: Volunteers take a certification quiz where they are tested on their knowledge of the sampling protocol and successful identification of common macroinvertebrates to the (mostly) order level. Certified monitors adopt stream locations and are paired with a sampling partner and provided a stream monitoring kit.
Please select your preferred workshops and register to secure your spot(s). Each option has a description, and the hyperlink button will take you to the workshop location.
*All workshops are dependent upon streamflow and weather conditions and may have to be rescheduled accordingly.*
*Attendees are required to sign a volunteer waiver form to participate.*
*Attendees under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.*
Please email Program Manager, Rachel Pence, at [email protected] if you have any questions.