Design of a cooperatively implemented monitoring system the Big Thompson Watershed Forum

In 1996 a stakeholder group, The Big Thompson Watershed Forum, was formed i n the North Front Range region of Colorado in an effort to better manage an d monitor water quality. One of the first projects set in motion by the For um was the formation of a collaborative water quality monitoring system. Mo nitoring efforts in the watershed are fragmented. Due to differences in sam pling and analysis protocols, the data is neither comparable nor shared bet ween monitoring agencies. This left some regions of the watershed without d ata and others with data duplication. The cooperative monitoring effort was initiated to provide more thorough watershed coverage and eliminate data d uplication. This article describes the process used to design the monitorin g program. At this point a set of objectives, monitoring network, sample fr equency, and data analysis protocol have been developed, discussed, and agr eed upon by all Forum participants.