About Us

Citizen Scientists is an entirely volunteer driven, not-for-profit group that focuses on ecological monitoring, environmental training and education. Since establishment in 2001, we have been monitoring the stream health at various sites throughout the Rouge River watershed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Citizen Scientists was formed with three main goals:

To educate volunteers:

Using in-class workshops and presentations and in-field training exercises, we educate and train the local community to collect accurate and reliable stream data including stream morphology (e.g., water depth, velocity, substrate, bank features, etc.), fisheries, benthic invertebrates, and temperature in order to build understanding and awareness about their local ecosystems and the issues that degrade them. Volunteers learn how and why stream monitoring is important and how it connects to environmental protection.

To foster local stewardship:

We reach out to local community members, college and university students, experts in the environment field and other interested volunteers in order to build awareness and understanding of local aquatic ecosystems and their related issues (e.g. endangered species, stormwater management and aquatic invasive species) with the hopes of shaping a more sustainable future.

To monitor local watersheds:

We collect stream morphology, fisheries, benthic invertebrates, and temperature data in an accurate and reliable manner using a government approved protocol as well as other stream monitoring techniques. Group members collect a range of environmental information, learn about local species, their habitats and the ecological processes that support them. The data we collect is shared with government agencies, environmental organizations and researchers, and is available to the general public.