Monroe Conservation Commission prepares for ‘Streamwalk'

Monroe - Kris Breitenfeld, the education coordinator for the Orange County Soil and Water Conservation District, will be a featured guest at the Monroe Town Conservation Commission meeting on Wednesday, April 19, at 8 p.m. in the John D’Angelis Town Hall. Breitenfeld will train volunteers involved in the commission’s “Streamwalk” Project on the appropriate techniques of stream quality assessments. A group from Monroe’s Conservation Commission has chosen to assess part of the stream that empties from Walton Lake to the Beaverkill Creek in Chester and finally to the Moodna Creak. Commission members plan to walk part of a stream corridor and identify habitat and stream restoration sites, and to catalogue existing conditions to monitor changes. “Our inland waters are in extreme jeopardy as a result of urban and suburban sprawl,” said Conservation Commission Chairman John Ebert. “Especially disturbing is the increased ... storm water runoff impacting the quality of our inland water resources and jeopardizing the habitat and food chain of aquatic species throughout the Northeast. It is important that these waterways are assessed ... in order to measure improvements or damage caused by development and sprawl.” The public is invited to attend and participate in the streamwalk.