![Volunteer monitoring](/images/Volunteer_Monitoring.jpg")
In 1996 to respond to communities’ requests, ALLARM shifted its focus to providing volunteer monitoring groups with the knowledge, tools, and resources to answer their questions about the health of their local waterways. It is ALLARM’s philosophy that communities have complete ownership over their water quality assessments. ALLARM believes that the best science education occurs by mentoring volunteers at every step of the scientific process; including study design, sample collection and analysis, and data interpretation.
ALLARM enhances local action for the protection and restoration of Pennsylvania watersheds by empowering communities with scientific knowledge and tools to implement watershed assessments. Through the work of student and professional staff, ALLARM offers comprehensive services to enable groups to use critical scientific tools to enhance environmental quality and fully participate in community decision-making. To learn more about the work we are doing, please visit our .
In order to make technical assistance resources more widely available to monitoring watershed organizations, ALLARM has placed a number of its workshop tools and technical resources online. The goal of ALLARM's watershed monitoring resources is to create a central place for watershed organizations to find the necessary background materials, presentations, manuals, and step-by-step directions that are needed to implement water quality monitoring programs.