Dedicated to protecting the long-term health and natural resources
of New Hampshire’s coastal waters and estuarine systems.

 Volunteer Kit

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

Photo: The last night in the lab for the 18th GBCW monitoring season.

GBCW in the Review Process - GBCW will be completing the current grant this Spring, and we have a lot to do to get it started. Kits need to be refilled, new volunteers need to be trained, and QAQC needs to be run.

Jonathan Pennock is now working on creating the review panel and will be staring that process soon. When that process in completed we will have a good idea of what GBCW will grow into, and what volunteer opportunities will be available.

You have many ongoing opportunities for volunteering

  1. Water quality monitoring (sample water once a month at high and low tides at one of the monitoring sites)
  2. Phytoplankton monitoring (weekly from April through October)
  3. Bacteria sampling (includes storm run-off, shellfish)
  4. Equipment calibration
  5. Clerical Work (assist with data entry, letter writing, database)
  6. Attend committee meetings for GBCW (Technical Advisory, Open Lands, Cos. Comm.)
  7. Community festival (display, presentation)
  8. Data review (Compare data entered into computer with original data. Make corrections as needed.)
  9. Educational outreach (showing the display, speaking, Power Point presentations)
  10. Event preparation (help set up food, space, and items to take to the event)
  11. Kit care (kit set-up, breakdown, inventory, repairs)
  12. Laboratory cleanup (after sample processing, includes washing towels)
  13. Laboratory counts (counting fecal coliform results after the incubation period is completed)
  14. Laboratory processing (processing fecal samples)
  15. Monthly docent meeting (report GBCW news, bring back information from meeting)
  16. Phytoplankton field training (training in the field while sampling at a site)
  17. QA/QC team (assist in providing QA/QC testing)
  18. Shellfish sampling (Go out on the boat with Chris or Matt and collect samples.)
  19. Special activities (BBQ, Chili-Chowda Fest, Secchi Dip In)
  20. Teaching (Volunteers teach others about GBCW and a specific topic.)
  21. Transporting (transport samples, mussels, people)
  22. Write (grant, manual or report writing)
  23. 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.
  24. 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.

Back to top

Mouth of Lamprey River