Community Science Institute

10/12/2026

There's still time to register! We hope you'll join CSI and our partners at Discover Cayuga Lake and Cayuga Lake Watershed Network out on our beautiful Cayuga Lake this Wednesday to learn about "the state of the lake"!

Meet the folks who make it their livelihood to take care of the lake, on a sunset cruise! Hear what's on their minds as the season wraps up. This cruise will feature plenty of time to learn, chat and share your ideas with your neighbors while enjoying the glory of the fall foliage. Now's the time to learn how the lake changes throughout the seasons and what we need to be on the lookout for to ensure the health of this water body that is our home.

This Love Your Lake COMMUNITY SUNSET CRUISE is free/donation-based as always, but reservations are necessary. Sign up on on our website (click on Book Now).

10/08/2026

Join us next week on Discover Cayuga Lake's "State of the Lake" cruise!

10/14/26 @ 6-7:30 PM
Free!
Register here: https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/discovercayugalake

10/02/2026

Catch up with CSI and see what we've been up to during the month of September! As we head into fall, there’s plenty happening across the Finger Lakes watershed—and we’re wrapping up another busy summer at CSI! In this month’s update, we’re sharing the latest Cayuga Lake Harmful Algal Bloom reports, what to do if you spot foam on any of the Finger Lakes, and updates from our synoptic stream and lake monitoring and biomonitoring programs. We’ll also look back on another successful season of Journey of Water, and share other upcoming events and ways to connect with your local water science community.

Click here to read more: https://mailchi.mp/813b8c8213c8/september2026

Active HAB conditions swirled around the southern side of Salt Point on 9/12/26. Photo taken via drone by CSI volunteer Sue Ruoff.

09/30/2026

"Reading" Water Quality in Salmon Creek- a free public program!

Join us tomorrow evening for a Friends of Salt Point Speaker Series program! Adrianna Hirtler, CSI's Biomonitoring Coordinator, will introduce you to the tiny creatures living beneath cobble-sized rocks that can tell us a surprising amount about water quality!

You’ll learn how to recognize some of the major groups of aquatic organisms used to assess stream health—and how you can use them to conduct your own DIY water quality assessment in rocky-bottomed streams.

We’ll also take a closer look at a live stream sample collected from Salmon Creek and see what its inhabitants can tell us about the health of the waterway.

Come "dip your toes" into the fascinating world of stream biomonitoring!

09/23/2026

💦 Help State University of New York, Environmental School of Forestry (SUNY ESF) researchers learn more about water quality across Central New York!

On Saturday, 10/3/26, SUNY ESF is hosting a community-wide water sampling event through SHARCS (Sampling for Healthy Aquatic Resources with Community Support). Volunteers can collect a water sample from any lake, river, stream, or other body of water in Central New York and contribute to research being conducted by ESF students and faculty.

No previous experience is required—just bring your curiosity! Volunteers must be 18 or older.

🔬 What will the samples help researchers understand? The project is designed to give ESF students hands-on training in water quality analysis, data visualization, and statistics while contributing to research questions about our region's water resources.

💧 How to participate:
1) Sign up directly through the ESF SHARCS program at this link: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/1a7449364acc4750831e3ac5be9b8410/page/Get-Involved
2) Pick up a sample container from CSI beginning Monday, September 28 through Saturday, October 3.
3) On October 3, collect a sample from a waterbody of your choice and complete the accompanying survey.
4) Return your sample to CSI's after-hours sample shed by 8 AM on Sunday, October 4.

📍Questions about the sampling or research project? Please contact Aaron Ninokawa ([email protected])

Help researchers build a more detailed picture of water quality across Central New York—one sample at a time. 💧

The Central New York Land Trust SUNY ESF Chemistry

09/16/2026

Yesterday afternoon Adrianna Hirtler, CSI's Biomonitoring Coordinator, collected samples of benthic macroinvertebrates (BMI) from Big Stream in the Seneca Lake watershed.

Can we really even call this work if the "office" looks like this?!

You may be wondering: what are BMI?

Benthic= Living on or near the bottom of a water body
Macro= large enough to see with the naked eye
Invertebrates= organisms that lack a spine

This includes aquatic insects, molluscs, worms and leeches, and arachnids.

Why do we collect samples of them?

Biomonitoring is a process of looking at a biological community in order to assess the overall “health” of an ecosystem such as a stream. BMIs are often used for this purpose since they are found in all streams (except under extremely degraded conditions) and are relatively easy to collect. To learn more about CSI's biomonitoring program, visit: https://communityscience.org/biological-monitoring-2/

09/04/2026

CSI will be closed on Monday in observation of Labor Day. Have a safe and happy summer weekend!

PS- harmful algal bloom (HAB) observations can be reported here: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/87b399ce2af4454e8b5f83da2852768a

PPS- August Updates from CSI: https://mailchi.mp/681d16751455/august2026?e=5444554c40

Banner photo provided by Harry Durgin

08/28/2026

🏆 Celebrating Our Volunteers! 🏆

Last weekend at CSI’s annual Volunteer Recognition Event at Stewart Park, we were proud to honor two outstanding members of our volunteer community!

New Volunteer of the Year: Kurt Jirka

Since joining CSI in 2025, Kurt has jumped in with both feet! From bringing his expertise to our Biomonitoring program to spending Fridays washing bottles and assembling sampling kits, Kurt has quickly become an essential part of the CSI community. We’re so grateful for the energy, enthusiasm, and experience he brings to everything he does!

This award celebrates a new volunteer who jumped headfirst into their role at CSI. This person is a self-starter; someone who hit the ground running and has made an outsized impact in the program or programs in which they volunteer, despite having joined the organization a relatively short time ago. We recognize this volunteer for their hard work and enthusiasm. We look forward to seeing how this awardee will continue to grow as a CSI volunteer!

Dr. Stephen Penningroth Volunteer of the Year: Andrew “Andy” Yale

For more than a decade, Andy has dedicated his time to monitoring local water quality. From leading E. coli sampling for the West Shore Neighborhood Association to serving as a HABs Harrier, volunteer leader, and youth mentor, his long-standing commitment has made a lasting impact on CSI and our community.

This award celebrates a volunteer who goes above and beyond. Following the ethos of Dr. Stephen Penningroth, CSI’s founder, this volunteer exhibits determination and dedication in their commitment to supporting water quality in the Finger Lakes Region. They express their optimism for the future of this beautiful landscape through persistently educating their community about data-driven science, speaking out against unsustainable practices, and galvanizing their neighbors to join in the grassroots environmental movement.

👏 Please join us in congratulating Kurt and Andy—and thanking them for all they do to help protect and understand our local waters!

A special thank-you to The Plantsmen Nursery in Groton for generously donating a $25 gift certificate for each of this year’s award recipients! 🌱

08/22/2026

Today’s the day we celebrate our incredible volunteers! 💙 If you can’t join us in person, know that you’re with us in spirit.

Over the last 26 years, CSI volunteers have:

💧 Collected more than 150,000 water quality measurements, including nearly 91,000 from the Cayuga Lake watershed.

🧪 Spent hundreds of hours washing glassware, preparing sample kits, and entering data into our water quality database.

💦 Supported dozens of community outreach events, from Reggae Fest to our Journey of Water youth education programs.

🩵 Supported CSI through generous donations that, even in a challenging economy, continue to grow each year—allowing us to do more with, and for, our communities.

There simply aren’t enough accolades to express our gratitude for the countless hours, talents, ideas, and generosity our volunteers have shared with CSI over the past 26 years.

Thank you for being such an important part of CSI’s story—and our future! We can’t wait to celebrate YOU at Stewart Park later today and eat some delicious food from Catering By Luna and Purity Ice Cream! 🎉🎈🥳