In 2014 I learned about a citizen science program in the State of Minnesota to help with monitoring lake and stream water quality. We happen to live right by a lake (it is MN after all) and figured it would be a fun way to contribute to a public project and include my kids. Ten years and a few hundred readings later (some years have been better than others) I’m still monitoring the original lake site and an additional stream location.
I generally access my site by paddleboard. I’ve tried all sorts of watercraft canoes, kayaks, pontoons, etc. But the paddle board is the most reliable method for me, this means transporting a paddle board, anchor, paddle, GPS, and dry bag containing Secchi disk, clipboard with log, pen (regularly forgotten), thermometer, phone, etc. There is no way to keep a sheet of paper dry in this scenario, and as mentioned I often forget a pen, so. I started recording my logs on my phone and entering them later. It took way too long for me to realize I can replace a bunch of this with the phone.
That paper is 3 seconds from being taken by the wind.
So I’ve been making an app. I’ve taken a few stabs at this project over the last couple of years, but finally have it at a place where it is useful and works well. The app allows you to record and save readings for lake and streams (automatically grabbing things like location, temp, etc.) If you monitor multiple locations, you can save to each location so readings can be sorted separately. In the end if you choose to do something else you can export the data as JSON (and plain text in the future). For now it is iOS only, but I am open to Android if there is the need.
Enjoy some shaky paddle board footage of it in use:
Still coming are a few features:
Navigation!, I want to leave the GPS behind. Also pro-tip, get yourself a dry bag with an externally visible phone pocket.
Ice in/out dates for locations.
Filtering, more customized flows for 1 vs multiple sites, etc.
I will be opening up testing to those that are interested. You can add yourself to the testing list here.