The volunteer Environmental Monitoring Network (VEMN) includes more than 30 monitoring groups and more that 1000 volunteers.  The Membership consists or organizations like yours, that come from many different orientations: businesses, community members, environmental groups, students, military personnel and others.  These groups work together to monitor, restore and maintain the ecological health of the 5,010 square mile Merrimack River Watershed in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The VEMN encompasses all river, lake and watershed monitoring activities for the Merrimack River Watershed and works to ensure the quality, comparability and compatibility of data.  The network provides a watershed-wide support system to help coordinate and assist you in designing and carrying our monitoring programs anywhere in the Merrimack River Watershed.

The VEMN is needed because there are over 1000 active volunteers who comprise over 30 groups in the Merrimack River Watershed.  Each group has a different purpose for monitoring, uses different methods, and has different target audiences for their data.  With that many diverse monitoring groups, there is clearly a need to coordinate efforts so that, together, they create a watershed perspective.  This fosters informed decision-making with regards to river and watershed planning, management, improvement, and protection at all levels.  Here are some examples of how monitoring information is used.

	The Shawsheen Watershed Monitors were able to locate fecal coliform pollution "hot spots" in the Town of Andover and then work with the Andover Board of Health to track down the sources of pollution and eliminate them.
	The Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program is comprised of volunteers from local community boards of towns along the Merrimack from Franklin to Bow, NH, scientists from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Franklin Wastewater Treatment Plant personnel, and students and teachers from several high schools.  They inform community members from neighbors to the governor about the health of the Upper Merrimack River.