BWCAW Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) monitoring program, a part of the Citizen Lake Monitoring Program (CLMP), began in 2004. (You can learn more about CLMP on our Web site.) Because of the remote nature of the lakes in the BWCAW, very little consistent water quality data has been collected on them. The goal of the BWCAW program is to have visitors to the BWCAW could help collect basic water quality data on the lakes that they paddle through on their trips.

How the program works

If you’re interested in participating, let us know the dates of your trip and the approximate number of lakes you’ll be passing through. About a week before you leave, we’ll send you a water quality monitoring kit to take with you on your trip. The kit contains a special lightweight version of a Secchi disk (a white disk on a calibrated rope), waterproof data cards (one card is used for each lake), a laminated instruction sheet, and a pencil.

Upon return home, the volunteers return the entire kit (including the data cards) to us in a postage-paid padded envelope. Returning the kit as soon as possible is essential to the success of this program as we have only a limited number of disks to be shared between many interested volunteers.

Monitoring procedure

Before entering a lake, volunteers collect several stones to weight the disk so it will sink. The stones are placed in a “pouch” connected to the disk (full-weight metal disks are also available if weight is not a concern for you). Once on the lake, volunteers choose a deep part of the lake near the middle to take their measurement. They lower the disk into the water until it is no longer visible and note that depth from the markings on the rope. The disk is then lowered a little further and raised back up until it is just visible again. This second depth reading is averaged with the first, and the final number is recorded on one of the data cards, along with the date, the name of the lake and a drawing of the approximate monitoring location. This procedure is repeated for each lake along the volunteers’ route. (See diagram below)

Once volunteer data is received, it is entered into our statewide database. At the end of the season, BWCAW volunteers receive a report on the transparency of lakes statewide, including the ones that they monitored.

Would you like to participate?

If you’d like to be a part of our BWCAW volunteer lake monitoring program, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. at 651-757-2705 or 1-800-657-3864 (outside the Twin Cities). She’ll ask you for the dates of your trip, the number of lakes you expect to be on, and when you’ll be able to send the kit back for the next person to use.

Since kits will be shared among volunteers, it’s possible that a kit will not be available for the dates of your trip. If this happens to you, we’re sorry. But don’t give up! As the program grows, so will our supply of equipment, so give us a call for your next trip.

Thank you very much for your interest in the BWCAW volunteer water quality monitoring program. We appreciate your commitment to Minnesota’s natural resources, and look forward to working with you soon!