Get Involved
Get Involved
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Community Science Institute is a community-oriented organization, meaning we want your input and participation! Our volunteer water monitoring programs are designed to incorporate and respond to community concerns so that we adapt to what our community needs and wants from us.
Want to join our community to make a difference in your watershed? There are many ways to get involved, starting with joining our mailing list!
Volunteer With Us!
We have various volunteer opportunities, so no matter what your capacity, we probably have something for you! We have virtual volunteering options, get-your-feet-wet volunteering opportunities, and everything in between.
Visit our Monitoring Partnerships page to learn more about our four water quality monitoring partnerships. Or, go straight to our Volunteer With Us! page for a full list of opportunities and a sign up form.
The view from a volunteer’s kayak at the beginning of a monitoring event. Many of our volunteers relish the opportunity to get out on the water.
A map of sites monitored by CSI volunteers during 2022.
Monitoring Partnerships
CSI has four distinct volunteer monitoring partnerships that work with over 250 volunteers in New York State. Our volunteer programs allow us to build long-term datasets of water quality, investigate water quality in response to community concerns, identify Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) trends on Cayuga Lake, and determine the ecological and long term health of streams.
You can read about our programs in depth on our Monitoring Partnerships page. If you’re interested in exploring the data our volunteers have collected, consider perusing our database! You can look at the trends through graphs auto-populated by our database or download the data yourself. We collect these data for anyone to use; all we ask is to be credited as the source of the data if it use used in a presentation, research project, or publication.
Outreach and Education
At Community Science Institute, improving scientific literacy in our community is important to us. To work towards this goal, we offer free summer programming for local children (Journey of Water), Water and Community events focused on local topics of interest, and free educational materials.
For regular updates, including educational materials and more on our events, follow us on social media!
Donate
At CSI, we depend on the generosity and dedication of the individuals who support our mission. Donations ensure that we can further our mission to partner with communities to protect water. Your gift will support our existing programs – such as the Cayuga Lake Harmful Algal Bloom (HABs) Monitoring Program and the Journey of Water program – and will fund new initiatives to shed light on the Finger Lakes’ most pressing water quality issues.
