The waterways of our community are an essential part of what makes the Tanana Valley a wonderful and exceptional place to live, work, and visit.
The Adopt-A-Stream season runs from break-up to freeze-up!
Adopt-A-Stream training will be held as needed (location, time, and date TBD). Fill out the volunteer form below to schedule a training.
The Adopt-A-Stream program is a volunteer-based effort coordinated by the Tanana Valley Watershed Association (TVWA) in partnership with the City of Fairbanks’ Stormwater Advisory Committee. The goal is to get residents and local businesses involved in monitoring the water quality of the local rivers, lakes, and streams. Elements of the programs include water-quality monitoring, litter pick-up, streambank restoration and maintenance, and management of flow restrictions. The Adopt-A-Stream program kicked off on June 1, 2007, and has been a success ever since. The water quality monitoring portion of the TVWA Adopt-A-Stream program underwent a reformation in 2025 with the official addition of Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) protocols and in pursuit of adoption by K-12 classrooms, summer camps, and youth organizations with the intention of increased vested interest and long-term data collection, and a collaboration with the GLOBE Alaska Partnership at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ International Arctic Research Center Education Outreach Department was formed. You can join our citizen scientist team at any time by filling out the Volunteer Form above.
The waterways of our community are an essential part of what makes the Tanana Valley a wonderful and exceptional place to live, work, and visit. Assessing and improving the health of our watershed is a much bigger task than any one agency can take on. This is a community-sized task. Plus, this is fun and educational. Many of the activities within the Adopt-A-Stream program can be unique educational tools, and all of the activities are an extraordinary way for members of the community to get involved. The results from some of the sampling or restoration efforts can lead to positive changes in waterways within the Tanana Valley Watershed (e.g., fish habitat restoration, solving erosion control problems, removing point source pollution sources). Let's take pride in the Tanana Valley Watershed and see what we, as a community, can accomplish together.
Water Quality Monitoring:
Basic water quality monitoring can begin at any age. Volunteers will learn about the parameters of water that are looked at to determine the health of the stream, as well as invasive species, healthy bugs, and the importance of the riparian zone. Using the World Water Monitoring Kits and GLOBE hydrosphere protocols, citizen scientists will sample their local water bodies for Water Temperature, Transparency, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, and Electrical Conductivity.
Where does the data go?
The data collected by our volunteer team will be input into the Fairbanks Stormwater Advisory Committee's yearly water quality report. Data from 2007-2024 was also sent to DEC's Division of Water, Water Quality Standards, Assessment, and Restoration Department for analysis to help them determine the health of each stream. Data collected in 2025 and beyond will be entered into the GLOBE program’s open-source database sponsored by NASA’s Earth Science Division, where professional and citizen scientists all over the world can access it for study. You are collecting data for NASA!
Link to Water Quality Data per Site:
We now have our Adopt-A-Stream Sites mapped out. If you want to see what sites have historically been adopted, check out the map below! Or click on this link!
TVWA Adopt-A-Stream location from 2007-2024.
TVWA Adopt-A-Stream location from 2025-2026.
To adopt a water body near you or get water quality training and resources for a group, camp, or club, fill out the volunteer form above.
Residents can adopt a water-body on their own or, "Stream Teams" can be formed to work together or to take turns. Possible team members could be comprised of families, businesses, schools, clubs, fellow employees, churches, stream side property owners -- the more the better! TVWA encourages people of all ages to become involved in our programs, there is something available for everyone.
Here are the next steps you will follow to get started:
A. Fill out the volunteer form above to let us know who you are and what you’re interested in.
B. Choose a section of stream close to your home or business or a section that you like to visit. Any water body that lies within the Tanana River watershed can be adopted. Examples include: the Chena or Tanana River, Chena, Noyes, or Deadman Slough, Goldstream Creek, or Clearwater Creek. You will register this section as “your” section on the Adopt-A-Stream.
C. Decide how many times a year you can commit to sampling this section of waterway. A minimum of two times per year is asked.
D. Attend an Adopt-A-Stream training day to learn the proper techniques for water quality sampling and to collect your sampling supplies.
E. Turn in your data collection sheets once per month. Data sheets can be scanned and emailed to tvwatershed@gmail.com.
F. Turn in all water quality supplies to TVWA by October 30th, the end of the open water season.
Enrichment
To broaden the experience for the citizen scientists using either kit we have:
Habitat surveys based on the EPA Habitat Walk method to be conducted during the season to record changes in riparian habitat over time.
Insect collection activities available.
If you need a refresher on water quality sampling, click here for a powerpoint presentation refresher!
Project WET has some excellent lesson plans including this one about Water Quality Indicators and this one about Graphing Trends and Analyzing Data.
The GLOBE citizen science project has apps that you can download to track clouds and mosquito habitat.