The 2005 Youth Monitors of the Year award was given to the 400 9th grade monitors of Wausau West High School for their Wisconsin River Watershed Quality Project. The goal of this project is to determine the possible water quality impacts of the Black Creek Tributary on the Wisconsin River. These students are responsible for monitoring a variety of water quality parameters on the river under the guidance of their science teacher, Carla Gerstenberger. Their data have been used by the Water Action Volunteers (WAV), Marathon County Land Conservation Department, DNR, and Wisconsin River Education Network (WREN). These students have also presented their data at a WREN symposium at UW-Stevens Point.

The Rock River Coalition (RRC), encompassing portions of southeastern and south-central Wisconsin, has received the 2005 Citizen-based Monitoring Program of the Year award. Two of RRC’s primary projects, the Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program and the Volunteer Wetland Restoration Monitoring Program, have contributed a significant amount of data to local conservation efforts. The Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program has trained over 180 citizens to monitor streams in the 3700 square mile Rock River Basin. Yearly workshops are held to train new and continuing monitors. The Volunteer Wetland Restoration Monitoring Program began in 2004 and is currently working on a 1492 acre farm that will be restored to a wetland in 2006. A variety of wildlife and water quality surveys are currently being conducted on the farm to provide pre- and post-restoration data.

Jill Graf of the Conserve School has dedicated her time to water quality issues as well educating young students. She has worked with the Department of Natural Resources and Black Oak Lake Association on various projects including a comprehensive lake management plan for Black Oak Lake and water quality analysis on Moccasin Lake in Vilas County. Jill has also devoted a great deal of time to helping students become environmental stewards. She is an Envirothon advisor whose team has won the Wisconsin State Championship three times and placed in the International Canon Envirothon. Jill has also authored two children’s field guides for aquatic plants and insects.

Krista James, biology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, has been honored for her work on the Galloway Creek watershed in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Because of her own interest in the area and with the help of many students, community organizations, and the local government she has worked to restore and monitor the watershed. Watershed work has included monitoring water quality and local invertebrate populations, stream clean-ups, purple loosestrife control, and rain garden installations. Krista's efforts have long been recognized and appreciated by her students, colleagues, and community.

Kay Scharpf has been a Self-Help Volunteer Lake Monitor on Franklin Lake in Forest County since the program began in 1986. In this time she has collected hundreds of water clarity readings and water samples. Kay has also been instrumental in improving Self-Help Lake Monitoring protocols. In 2000, Kay served as a chemistry volunteer to compare water data taken between different methods. Research biologists used these data to determine which method was most accurate and should be used into the future. Kay also participates in the Breeding Bird Survey and Loon Rangers program.

Pete Jopke has been committed to volunteer monitoring for nine years. Pete's current position as the Dane County Watershed Project Manager gives him the unique opportunity to work with and utilize data collected by citizen monitors. Pete has organized citizen monitoring training sessions, worked with a variety of county and state organizations, and mentored local students. Pete has worked with the Water Action Volunteer (WAV) program and was also a member of the Rock River Coalition Water Quality Issue Team, helping to design the Rock River Basin Citizen Stream Monitoring Program. Pete has worked with numerous citizen monitoring groups and donates a large amount of his time to working with volunteers and stressing quality control issues with collected data.

Jane Swenson has been an integral part of citizen monitoring in the Delta and Iron River area of Bayfield County. She has been an active volunteer on several local lakes and recruits new volunteers for the Self-Help Lake Monitoring Program. Jane helped to develop a lake stewardship newsletter that provided a monitoring protocol used by the majority of the Self-Help Lake Monitoring volunteers in northwestern Wisconsin. She has also recently drafted and applied for an Aquatic Invasives Species grant after Eurasian water milfoil was discovered in two area lakes. The resulting program helps to educate local boaters as well as document the distribution of Eurasian water milfoil in the area. Jane has worked hard to unify local organizations on water quality and invasive species issues.