2024 New Monitor and Recertification Recap
A big thank you to all our volunteers this past summer! We had a fantastic season, recertifying hundreds of volunteers and, in partnership with Maine DEP, hosting a total of 38 water quality training workshops!
2025 New Monitor and Recertification Introduction
For those interested in becoming new monitors or needing recertification, we have outlined the process below. At the bottom of the page we provide a listing and map of the scheduled trainings. Thanks to the support of
local boat hosts who volunteer their time and fuel, we’re able to offer regional trainings around the state. The
boat hosts program is an essential part of our community as it ensures all volunteers have the opportunity to become certified or recertified.
For New Water Quality Monitors
For people completely new to the LSM water quality monitoring program, please
contact us using the form on this page. We offer many workshop sessions including some that may be in your area. Generally, trainings are broken into three levels: Secchi Transparency Monitoring, Secchi and Dissolved Oxygen (DO) & Temperature Monitoring, and Baseline. These training levels are dependent on equipment, frequency of recertification, and theory of the lake systems.
If you are interested in becoming a DO monitor, you must own or have access to a DO meter. That meter must also be certified. We send out information about annual certification of meters — our
Meterfest event — starting every March. Meters can cost anywhere from $600 to $6,000 (depending on meter), but LSM has a rental program for use by certified monitors. Please reach out to us if you are interested at
stewards@lakestewardsme.org.
If there is a water quality monitor already on your lake, we highly recommend joining them to get a firsthand look at what is involved with monitoring.
For Existing Water Quality Monitors
Thank you for your interest in continuing to participate in water quality data collection. The value of this data lies in the long-term, consistent dataset it creates. We will send an email in February with details about summer trainings, and our spring mailing of data forms will also include information on the 2025 training season. To sign up for a 2025 summer recertification workshop, please contact Jonnie by email.
We also ask that you submit any completed data forms by October 1st. You may continue to collect data after that date, but having data up to October 1st allows us to process it in a timely manner.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
