WELCOME TO THE WATERSHED DEMONSTRATION WEB SITE --This is a fictitious site developed by the Massachusetts Water Watch Partnership to demonstrate how a watershed web site might look-- We are working with the Deerfield River Watershed Association on this pilot so you will see many pages copied from their site. User's Guide for Watershed Web Site Developers
Get to Know the Watershed	Take a virtual tour of our watershed and learn about water quality and other environmental factors
Watershed Almanac	What's happening in our watershed today? Check here for weather, current river flow and skiing conditions, and lots more!
Recreation in the Watershed	What is there to do in the watershed? Check here for swimming, fishing, dining, entertainment and much more
Watershed-wise Living	How can you be a good steward of the land where you live and recreate? Tips on home, lawn, farm, boat care...
Watershed Forum	The Deerfield River Watershed Association's calendar, discussion group, news and programs.

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Discussion Forum

Do you have comments or suggestions to improve this site? Such as new links, new categories, better ways to display information, better graphics, anything! Click on the left image below.

 

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User's Guide

Watershed Associations Webmasters: You can use this site to your advantage in several ways:

• Copy the URL of some links you can add to your own site. Examples include watershed ecology (use as is), daily almanac or flow reports (just change to your own locality)
• Use some links as ideas or inspirations: they look nice, but you'll need to make your own or find a similar site closer to home
  examples include maps, or fishery status (this links to Northeast US information)
• See how some links could be adapted for your own watershed; you'll need to develop those
  examples include membership information or environmental news
• Improve on some sites that are OK but could be better--again, you'll need to develop your own better site
  examples include water release schedules (would be better if it gave you a daily update)
• Copy the html for template pages, where you just need to fill in your own information
  examples include...hang in there, we are still developing templates!

Sites for Web page Development

• Community Websites: Opportunities and Challenges for Community Webmasters

• www.netmechanic.com A free service that will try all the links to your site, then tell you which ones are broken. Other neat tools as well.
• thinkofit.com/webconf Conferencing Software for the Web: A comprehensive guide to software that powers discussions on the Web
• assembly.nerdworld.com/plans.asp?rcampaign=nerdhome Assembly lets you set up a conference by filling out an on-line form - no programming required. From their web site: "Create a place on the Internet where you and your family, friends, clients and co-workers can get together and meet! An Assembly is your own personal place to post, respond to and organize messages. A public forum that is easy for anyone in the world to reach at any time of the day."
• home.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-3880.html Lots of technical web-building tips - advice from a web pro.
• http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/ type in a tech / computer term, get a definition

On Community networks:

• Building the online community: Content Article on content for a community web site
• Neighborhoods.net Nice intro pages describing how to set up a community oriented web site. Good tips.
• Democratizing Science article on Community Based Research

Nonprofit management

• Community & Environmental Defense Services Offers free organizational, strategic, fundraising, etc. help for environmental organizations. Also has downloadable documents, studies of impacts of development on trout, etc.
• National Center for Nonprofit Boards Good information on Organization and Management issues: board development, etc.
• Network for Good More resources for nonprofits. Foundations listing, advice, etc

Watershed ecology

• Know Your Watershed What is a watershed. Has short video clips.
• Freshwater Ecology ecology primer. Some nice graphics. Yarra Valley water company, Australia.
• Earth Science Stream morphology web course. Ontario.
• Washington Department of Ecology Background information, with good diagrams, on lake ecology. From Washington state.
• Watersheds (watershed page) An interactive educational site to promote awareness of Canada's aquatic environments. Features text, maps, diagrams, photos, games on plants, animals, and habitats.
• Riparian Buffers Ten fact sheets on the benefits of grass/shrub/tree strips that protect river banks.
• What is a Watershed? In the form of a coloring book for children (you can even turn the pages), this is a different approach to explain the concept of a watershed.

Monitoring

• Physical Monitoring Pebble count methodology.
• Waterwatch Habitat Survey Australia. Viewers are shown river photographs, asked to rank the habitat quality. Their answers are compared with "experts". Good training tool. Example of distance learning? A component of a web course?
• Biological Monitoring MD county bug monitoring site. Maps of subwatershed conditions.
• Stream health monitoring New Zealand Stream health monitoring assessment kit.
• Connecticut's volunteer macroinvertebrate monitoring Includes instructions, forms, some nice ID cards that describe bugs in popular, non-scientific terms (e.g. "Michelin-man caddis").
• Mass Water Watch Partnership Assistance to citizen groups monitoring watersheds in Massachusetts

Watershed Advocacy

• List of MA state legislators Also has a tracking system for some state bills.
• Massachusetts Watershed Coalition

Miscellaneous

• Rouge River Example of a Watershed web site. Good layout, although loads slowly.
• EPA map of impaired Massachusetts waters Related pages offer an explanation of the federal Total Maximum Daily Load program (for allowable loads of pollutants in such waters), a template slide show on TMDLs, funding sources, etc.
• Virtual tour of the Los Angeles River
• Virtual tour of the Connecticut: only 4 sites, but interesting concept of what you can do at each (science, history, art, habitat)
• Watershed Information Site UMass professor Tim Randhir's Watershed web site. Links to many watershed-related pages.
• Model Ordinances to Protect Local Resources The US EPA has set up a Model Ordinances (we call 'em by-laws) Web Site where state and local officials can find models and real-life examples of ordinances to help them protect water quality. Many of the model ordinances can be customized to local conditions.
• Dam Removal Success Stories 'Dam Removal Success Stories: Restoring Rivers Through Selective Removal of Dams That Don't Make Sense'. It is the most comprehensive review to date of the history and benefits of dam removal in the United States.
• River Restoration More dam removal success stories
• Watch Over Washington WA state Volunteer Monitoring site. Among other things, has a Q&A page for common questions (e.g. how do I find if a certain plant is E. milfoil? How often should I change my DO reagents?)
• Hard Bargain Farm Check out the website at for watersheds, schools, kids, etc. Fun!
• EPA watershed web academy
• Fish Base A searchable site to learn about the ecology of specific fish

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