On July 3, the ALLARM team hosted a workshop at the Yellow Breeches Creek with Cumberland County project partners to go over the Community-Based Restoration Monitoring Protocol. This protocol, which has been in development for the past few years, is aimed at assessing the effectiveness of stream restoration projects over time. This was an amazing hands-on experience where we get to practice going through steps in the manual with partners who would hopefully be helping pinpoint monitoring sites in the future.
In this workshop, Jules Vastine (ALLARM’s Director), Phoebe Galione (Outreach Manager), Jinnie Monismith (Science Advisor), Kailey Sipe ‘25, and Uyen Bui ‘27 collaborated to demonstrate the process of restoration monitoring. The event started with Jules and Phoebe giving a fantastic overview about the protocol’s goals and monitoring elements, helping our colleagues to better understand how to approach the monitoring process. Our project partners then warmed up by getting into the stream to measure water temperature and water clarity. We were able to walk through all the data points—from cross section measurements (like embeddedness and substrate classification), channel geometry (like bank height and angle), biological habitats, riparian zone measurements, to characteristics of the entire reach. We wrapped up the event by answering our partners’ questions and enjoying the gorgeous weather!
Uyen Bui ’27:
From preparation steps to getting on-site to direct the transect team, I have grown so much from this workshop. To get ready for the event, we set up a transect outside of the ALLARM office with rocks being the stream bank. This process has truly helped me streamline my understanding of the protocol and visualize how restoration monitoring would look like at stream. When the day of the event came around, I was able to apply what I learned in preparation and assisted our partners to best follow the protocol with confidence. For this event, my favorite moment was seeing participants discuss results for percentage of substrate classification and periphyton coverage. It is always an amazing feeling witnessing how the participatory science work we do at ALLARM transcends the idea of science being on an exclusive pedestal — doing science can be inclusive and involve participation from local communities. This sense of connection gives me hope about community-based restoration monitoring and community science in general.
Kailey Sipe ‘25:
This event was my first in-person restoration monitoring training experience throughout my time at ALLARM! While running through the protocol, I, along with Uyen Bui, had the task of directing the flow of the workshop by calling out the next steps on the data sheet so that we were on track. We were also responsible for helping to answer any questions that arose throughout the experience. Through this training, I learned more about our Cumberland partners and what they do, as well as what the protocol entailed and how to complete it for a restoration project. My favorite part of the protocol I learned about was assessing the cross-section measurements, as I was able to see how the data differed across the stream from one bank to the other! For example, while measuring the depth at each transect, it was notable that the depth at the near bank was significantly less than at the far bank, with a difference of 30cm! Overall, the NFWF training was an educational experience that helped me to better understand how to complete the restoration monitoring protocol, and why it is helpful in protecting our streams.
After completing the NFWF restoration monitoring protocol, we wrapped up with reflections on our lessons learned from the event and gathered our equipment to return to Dickinson. It was an incredible educational experience for us as the event was our first in-person restoration training event! We hope to keep in touch with our project partners in Cumberland County and look forward to working with them in the future!
