Field Training

Remember IceWatching is done from a distance. There is no need to walk onto a freezing body of water or to the direct edge of a shoreline. IceWatch should be done from a spot where your feet are firmly planted on the ground!

Examples could include:

1. Recording the freeze and thaw dates for an entire body of water.
   Watch a pond in your local park, the irrigation pond in your field or the lake outside your home or cottage. Record the dates the entire body of water has ice covering it and when all of the ice has left this entire body of water.
    
2. Looking at one small section of a larger body of water.
   Pick one section of a river, or an inlet or small cove that is attached to the larger lake. Make note of its location; first bridge southward of highway exit 6 or lower north shore inlet. Observe when this entire area freezes over or thaws entirely. Make sure you keep your observation consistent!
    
3. Creating an imaginary line that goes across a body of water.
   Sitting in the centre of your coach looking directly through the living room window to the third telephone pole on the other side of the lake. You would record the dates that the ice is frozen or thawed the entire distance between these two points.

Your observation should always be taken from the exact same place in the exact same way. Make a note of how you do this so other individuals will know how you did your monitoring. Remember the ice may freeze and thaw several times so record all of these dates!