For the last five years, Herb Saperstone has watched the creek in his backyard in the foothills outside Fort Collins and marked down its activity.
Sometimes water flows and pools. Sometimes the gulch is dry and silent. Sometimes water seeps from the rocks.
“It was almost begging me to come and measure the flow,” Saperstone said of Jess Gulch, named for his wife.
He marks it all down on an app and sends the data to Colorado State University researchers looking to learn more about how, when and why small streams come and go. Researchers hope the data submitted to the Stream Tracker app by citizen scientists will help them learn about how streams are affected by climate change, wildfires and development.
“These smaller streams make up over half of the total stream miles in the world, and yet we don’t study them or monitor them anywhere close to how we monitor big stream systems,” said Kira Puntenney-Desmond, project manager for Stream Tracker and a research associate at Colorado State University. “They are really variable and really dynamic and are usually the first to change with seasonal changes in weather patterns and changes in climate.”
Puntenney-Desmond and other researchers launched Stream Tracker in 2017 at the height of the popularity of Pokemon Go, a phone game where players could roam their neighborhood and collect virtual reality creatures. Everyone was walking around with their phones out — why couldn’t they be asked to collect water data too?
“People are passing these streams every day when they are hiking, biking or driving — just living in these watersheds,” Puntenney-Desmond said.
The app asks users to mark whether a stream is flowing, if it is dry or if there is standing water. More than 900 people have submitted data over the last six years — enough that scientists are starting to be able to analyze trends. While the project is based in Colorado, there have also been submissions from other states and as far as Chile, Spain and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Beginning in 2019, the project partnered with the U.S. Forest Service to monitor streams in Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, which cover much of the mountains just west of the Front Range. The data will help the Forest Service improve its maps and shape decisions about streamside buffers, road construction and how to protect water resources.
Accurate information about small streams can be crucial when fighting wildfires, Puntenney-Desmond said. Knowing where water is — and isn’t — can shape response.
Stream Tracker researchers were able to use data from the program to track how the 2020 Cameron Peak fire affected small streams because they had years of data that pre-dated the fire, Puntenney-Desmond said. After the fire, some streams became flows of mud and ash. New streams appeared where there hadn’t previously been water.
“Following the wildfire, it’s been completely transformed,” she said.
Saperstone, a semi-retired geologist, participates in the program because he enjoys the sense of community with other curious-minded citizen scientists.
Project manager Kira Puntenney-Desmond, left, and volunteer Robin Hoffman walk with the group during a guided Stream Tracker hike on the South Valley Loop trail at Lory State Park in Fort Collins Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. The project focuses on gathering data on intermittent streams from community members using an app to submit their observations. (Photo by Alex McIntyre/Special to The Denver Post)
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Project manager Kira Puntenney-Desmond, right, speaks about the project alongside hydrology research assistant Shelby Weder, center, and volunteer Robin Hoffman, left, as the group makes a stop at Mill Creek during a guided Stream Tracker hike on the South Valley Loop trail at Lory State Park in Fort Collins Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. The project focuses on gathering data on intermittent streams from community members using an app to submit their observations. (Photo by Alex McIntyre/Special to The Denver Post)
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Volunteer Herb Saperstone shows the main screen of the Stream Tracker app during a guided Stream Tracker hike on the South Valley Loop trail at Lory State Park in Fort Collins Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. The project focuses on gathering data on intermittent streams from community members using an app to submit their observations. (Photo by Alex McIntyre/Special to The Denver Post)
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Volunteer Robin Hoffman takes a picture of a flowing intermittent stream to submit during a guided Stream Tracker hike on the South Valley Loop trail at Lory State Park in Fort Collins Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. The project focuses on gathering data on intermittent streams from community members using an app to submit their observations. (Photo by Alex McIntyre/Special to The Denver Post)
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Project manager Kira Puntenney-Desmond leads the group during a guided Stream Tracker hike on the South Valley Loop trail at Lory State Park in Fort Collins Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. The project focuses on gathering data on intermittent streams from community members using an app to submit their observations. (Photo by Alex McIntyre/Special to The Denver Post)
“It’s all about community, about having kindred spirits out there,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not enough to look at something, I have to know why, what’s going on.”
Intermittent streams are an important, but overlooked, parts of the water system on which we rely, Puntenney-Desmond said.
“When we think about water, where it comes from and how much we have, this is a really important component of how we live and thrive,” she said.
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