Celebrate 35 Years of WET at our Annual Banquet on 11/14

From the Stream to Your Screen: Behind the Scenes with WET’s Creekwatcher Program

September 2025
Part 1/3

Michelle Smith documents observations during her biweekly Creekwatchers sampling.

This fall, we’re pulling back the curtain to share how our water-quality data get from the stream to your screen! For the first installment, we joined Michelle Smith, Creekwatcher for Mitchell Pond.

Michelle works at Avery Hall Insurance, a local company that values community service so much that it encourages employees to spend a portion of their workweek volunteering to better our community. WET is fortunate that Michelle chose to dedicate her time to Creekwatchers. Her role involves collecting water samples, measuring air and water temperature, recording water clarity, and making observations about rainfall, wind, and other conditions.

When asked why she volunteers, Michelle quickly responds, “Health is wealth! By testing the water, I am helping to ensure that we have a clean environment, which supports everyone’s health.”

Michelle is one of WET’s newer Creekwatchers, having joined the team in April 2025. She admits she was a little intimidated at first, but found the process simple and the WET team supportive. Now she says, “It really does feel good to do it. It feels like something that is making a difference!”

For Michelle, the best part of Creekwatchers sampling is the walk to the water’s edge, where she is often greeted by one or more great blue herons – a fitting sight, since the majestic creature is also the official bird of Salisbury. As Michelle puts it, “There is simply nothing better than getting outside and knowing that you are doing something positive for the environment.”

Thanks to Creekwatchers like Michelle, WET collects reliable water-quality data that helps protect both our environment and our community. Each year, results are shared with the public in our Wicomico River Watershed Report and with local governments through in-person presentations. And this is just the start – in next month’s installment of From the Stream to Your Screen, we’ll take you into the lab to see what happens once those water samples are collected.

We’re also looking ahead to the future: WET will be recruiting Creekwatchers volunteers for the 2026 season and inviting community members to “adopt-a-site” to help defray the cost for sampling and analysis equipment and reagents. Stay tuned for details on how you can get involved and make a difference right in your own neighborhood.

This article is cross-posted in our September Midstream Monthly newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter to get stories like these in your inbox.