Dedicated to protecting the long-term health and natural resources
of New Hampshire’s coastal waters and estuarine systems.
Volunteer Kit
- Water Quality
- Phytoplankton
- Both
Volunteer Opportunities
GBCW volunteers come from the entire southeast area of New Hampshire as well as from southern Maine. We'd love to have you join us.
Short-term Opportunities
Training, and Meetings, and Monitoring Oh My! - Training new volunteers has started, and there are more training opportunities coming up. Experienced volunteers can get refresher training as well.
The Annual Meeting on Marcdh 11 is a great time to learn about GBCW and decide how you can vlounteer. Get interviewed and trained before QAQC (Quality Assurance and Quality Control), on April 8 and 9, so you can be a Certified Monitor by contacting Ann Reid. Check the calendar for event listings. Monitoring starts on April 22.
You have many ongoing opportunities for volunteering
- Water quality monitoring (sample water once a month at high and low tides at one of the monitoring sites)
- Phytoplankton monitoring (weekly from April through October)
- Bacteria sampling (includes storm run-off, shellfish)
- Equipment calibration
- Clerical Work (assist with data entry, letter writing, database)
- Attend committee meetings for GBCW (Technical Advisory, Open Lands, Cos. Comm.)
- Community festival (display, presentation)
- Data review (Compare data entered into computer with original data. Make corrections as needed.)
- Educational outreach (showing the display, speaking, PowerPoint presentations)
- Event preparation (help set up food, space, and items to take to the event)
- Kit care (kit set-up, breakdown, inventory, repairs)
- Laboratory cleanup (after sample processing, includes washing towels)
- Laboratory counts (counting fecal coliform results after the incubation period is completed)
- Laboratory processing (processing fecal samples)
- Monthly docent meeting (report GBCW news, bring back information from meeting)
- Phytoplankton field training (training in the field while sampling at a site)
- QA/QC team (assist in providing QA/QC testing)
- Shellfish sampling (Go out on the boat with Chris or Matt and collect samples.)
- Special activities (BBQ, Chili-Chowda Fest, Secchi Dip In)
- Teaching (Volunteers teach others about GBCW and a specific topic.)
- Transporting (transport samples, mussels, people)
- Write (grant, manual or report writing)
- Monitoring Support: Kit setup, kit cleanup, calibration
Each November the monitoring kits need to be cleaned, checked, emptied of chemicals, and put away after the monitoring season ends. Each spring the equipment needs to be calibrated, and then the kits can be refilled. In July the thermometers, hydrometers, and pH meters are returned and calibrated before the August QAQC session, so they can be returned when volunteers are at Kingman Farm. A team of volunteers is needed at each of these events to ensure that these tasks are completed in a timely manner. Please include “Monitoring Support” as one of your tasks if you are interested in participating in these activities.- Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QAQC)
GBCW has a vigorous QAQC program to ensure that its data is of high quality and usable by many agencies, organizations, researchers, and students. To make sure that our volunteers are trained well, and using their training in the field, we have a QAQC Team made up of volunteers with extra training on how to test QAQC parameters. They help process monitors during the QAQC sessions in March and August, and some replicate samples in the field. Please include “QAQC Team” as one of your tasks if you are interested in participating in these activities.
Monitoring Sites
Water Quality sites are in: Dover, Durham, Eliot, ME, Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, New Castle, Newington, Newmarket, and Portsmouth.
Phytoplankton monitoring sites are in: New Castle, Portsmouth, Rye, Sea Brook, and Star Island
Special Project sites have included: Dover, Rye, and Sea Brook.
A Volunteer Story
There is a new face at GBCW; Chelsea Cathart is helping at the office. She is from the Sandwich Community School, in Tamworth, NH and is interning with us for her senior project during the month of March. Chelsea is interested in studying Marine Biology at the University of New England, in Biddeford, ME after she graduates this spring. Her family has strong roots in NH, and Seavey Island at the Isle of Shoals is named after one of her ancestors, William Seavey. Some of Chelsea’s other interests include history, archery and sledding.
You can
be a volunteer!
