CLEAN STREAMS

Conservation

Clean Streams

Creek Critters App

Can you identify a common netspinner caddisfly, fishfly larva or riffle beetle larva? With the Creek Critters smartphone app the answer is a resounding YES!

Creek Critters shows users how to find the small organisms that live in freshwater streams. It walks users through identifying these benthic macroinvertebrates, or creek critters, with a series of visual cues. The types of critters living in our local streams are indicators of the health of our region’s waters.

Get the FREE Creek Critters App

 

See How the APP Works

Where Communities are Monitoring

Click here to see live results.

Clean Stream Partners

Join the Communities for Clean Streams Partner Network today. As a part of our network you’ll get:

  • 10 complimentary ANS Communities for Clean Streams memberships
  • Customized Creek Critters app event support
  • A more inspired community who cares about clean streams and what it takes to protect and restore them

Our Partners

We’re partnering  with groups in Maryland, DC and Virginia who care about clean streams.  Join us. Become a partner today.

Maryland:
Alice Ferguson Foundation Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Anacostia Watershed Society  Choose Clean Water Coalition City of Rockville Croydon Creek Nature Center Friends of Cabin John Impact Silver Spring Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake Izaak Walton League – Bethesda Chevy Chase Chapter Little Falls Watershed Alliance Montgomery County Government Department of Environmental Protection Montgomery Parks Nature Centers (Black Hill, Brookside, Locust Grove and Meadowside) Neighbors of Northwest Branch People for Change Coalition Rock Creek Conservancy Rock Creek Hills Citizen’s Association Rock Creek Nature Center Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission – WSSC 

DC:
Groundworkdc.org National Park Service

Virginia:
Fairfax County Parks Authority Friends of Accotink Creek Friends of the OccoquanNOVA Soil and Water Conservation District Piedmont Environmental Council Prince William Soil & Water Conservation District The Nature Generation Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Independent Audubon Societies:
Connecticut Massachusetts New Hampshire Rhode Island 

Partnership Agreement

With this partnership agreement we ask Communities for Clean Streams partners to host at least one streamside event using the Creek Critters app. As a result, here’s what you can expect!   ANS will provide:

  • the Creek Critters app for IOS and Android users
  • training for engaging people in Creek Critters app events
  • a communications toolkit
  • supplies for using the Creek Critters app
  • Creek Critters app event support by ANS volunteers
  • ANS Communities for Clean Streams membership for Creek Critters app event attendees

Partners will:

  • host Creek Critters app events by recruiting participants, identifying stream sites, and gaining access permissions (if needed)
  • publicize Creek Critters app events
  • manage and staff Creek Critters app events
  • incorporate a stream stewardship activity into Creek Critters app events
  • host follow-on events
  • provide feedback on the Creek Critters app

ANS and Partners will:

  • share participant contact information
  • share event data and photos

Online Partner Toolkit

How to Run a Creek Critters App Event

Running a streamside event with the Creek Critters app is easy! Check it out.

More Tools You Can Use

Now that you’ve become a Clean Streams Partner, use these templates, tools and tips to get the word out about what you’re doing in communities to help protect and restore streams.

Media Outreach

First, let everyone know you’ve joined ANS’s Communities for Clean Streams as a partner.

Planning a Creek Critters app event or other clean stream event?

Event Promotion

Use our customizable flyer to promote your upcoming Creek Critters app event or other clean stream event. When you see it on the screen, it is faded. But when you print, it will look fine. After creating your flyer, save it as an Acrobat (pdf) file to print, email or upload, and then the artwork will look full-color. Print and promote! We recommend using a sign-in sheet at any of your clean streams events for collecting names and email addresses of committed community members. That way, we can keep in touch – to let them know about other upcoming clean stream events and more.

Evergreen Tweets and Posts

Promote your event on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites. Check back monthly for new tweets and posts.

  • Clean Water Matters! ANS has an app for that – the Creek Critters app
  • Join Communities for Clean Streams to receive a FREE trial ANS Clean Streams Membership – http://bit.ly/1FpHvNb
  • Try the Creek Critters app before you wade into unfamiliar waters
  • Supporting people and partners in clean stream stewardship
  • Conduct do-it yourself stream health testing with the Creek Critters app