ACAP Saint John and Atlantic Water Network (AWN) Launch New Brunswick Expansion of Equipment Bank
MEDIA RELEASE - May 23, 2019
In partnership with the Atlantic Water Network (AWN), ACAP Saint John is pleased to be launching the New Brunswick expansion of the AWN Equipment Bank, providing unprecedented access to properly calibrated and fully functional water monitoring equipment to community-based water monitoring programs throughout the province.
Located in Saint John, New Brunswick, this new provincial hub will expand upon AWN’s longest running program and function as a resource for environmental stewardship organisations across New Brunswick. The New Brunswick Equipment Bank will increase partner organisations’ capacity by providing resources, training and free access to water monitoring equipment including YSI handheld units and flow meters. This marks the first external expansion of the existing Equipment Bank at AWN’s central office in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which provides organisations with properly calibrated and fully functional equipment. Resulting from the Equipment Bank is the compilation of a strong regional dataset populated by data that are now comparable and available for analysis and management planning. AWN’s role in coordinating and supporting regional community-based water monitoring is crucial to increasing capacity and to collecting and reporting a comprehensive set of baseline data that can be used to plan well-informed management, regulation, conservation, and restoration activities throughout New Brunswick and the Atlantic Canadian region.
This expansion comes in response to the overwhelmingly positive feedback about the Equipment Bank and the subsequent calls to open equipment banks in the other Maritime Provinces, to make this equipment more accessible to other organisations. With funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada, TD Friends of the Environment Fund and the Canada Summer Jobs, AWN been able to expand and offer a pilot year of equipment hubs in New Brunswick and PEI. This will allow partner organisations in these provinces have better access to this equipment and continue to expand the both capacity of local groups and the amount of data collected in the region.
As it continues to grow its body of research and restoration across the Wolastoq (St. John River) watershed and the Bay of Fundy, ACAP Saint John is thrilled to be the home of this expanded Equipment Bank and to foster growth, capacity building and employment within the environmental and stewardship sectors of New Brunswick.
For more information or media inquiries, please contact:
Graeme Stewart-Robertson, Executive Director, ACAP Saint John
graeme@acapsj.org , 1-506-652-2227
About the Atlantic Water Network
Atlantic Water Network (AWN) is a not-for-profit organization that has been supporting community-based water monitoring and management in Atlantic Canada for over a decade. Housed in the Department of Geography at Saint Mary’s University, AWN acts as a catalyst and support system for environmental stewardship in Atlantic Canada by providing free training and equipment to volunteers, student interns, and staff of community organizations. AWN directly supports over 50 Atlantic Canadian stewardship organizations, increasing their capacity by providing resources, training and free access to water monitoring equipment through its long running Equipment Bank program. Located at AWN’s central office in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Equipment Bank provides organizations with properly calibrated and fully functional equipment, including YSI handheld units, CABIN kits, flow probes, and turbidity meters.
As a result of the Equipment Bank, AWN has achieved the compilation of a strong regional dataset populated by data that are now comparable and available for analysis and management planning. AWN’s role in coordinating and supporting regional community-based water monitoring is crucial to increasing capacity, collecting and reporting a comprehensive set of baseline data that can be used to plan well-informed management, regulation, conservation, and restoration activities throughout the Atlantic Canadian region. Additionally, AWN’s water quality database capacity has evolved into the recent successful launch of Atlantic DataStream; a free, open access data portal for water quality data. This secure platform for water quality data stores the data of several of AWN’s community partners throughout the Atlantic region.
About ACAP Saint John
Founded in 1992, ACAP Saint John is a community-based, non-profit organization that encourages communication, partnership and active involvement from all sectors of the community in managing our environment. Our mandate is to work with the community to improve the environmental health of Saint John, and to respond to the growing demand from the community to have a more active role in environmental decision-making.
ACAP Saint John aims to provide communities with environmental solutions to generational challenges, as well as building capacity for change and adoption of better water practices. We continue to affect long-term planning for greening and revitalization in Saint John by offering our expertise and our research outcomes to all levels of government, corporations and institutions throughout the region. Some of our past projects have included water quality monitoring, riparian enhancements, fish passage improvements, culvert removals and more broad planning projects like watershed management plans and coastal adaptation planning.
At its heart, ACAP has always been an environmental incubator, one that transforms and evolves our region’s landscapes with the help of governments, companies and community collaborators. Our work is designed to be seen, felt and experienced throughout the environment – from our wetlands and coastlines to our streets and public spaces.
