Citizen monitoring provides an opportunity for ecologists and citizens come together to describe and analyze ecosystem trends and conditions.   Citizen stream monitoring programs, for example, have the capacity to increase public awareness of ecosystems, and to provide the impetus for structural changes that can improve watershed health.  Using a policy sciences framework I investigate the link between data and the engagement of citizen monitoring groups in the policy sciences problem orientation and decision process.  Data from a 2002 survey of citizen macroinvertebrate monitoring groups in the US, illustrates that data quality does not correlate with data use or citizen perception of program outcomes.  Data use, however, is positively correlated with building social capital, indicating that the process of sharing intelligence empowers volunteer groups to feel better connected with a network of engaged citizens and professionals.  In-depth interviews with citizen scientists, natural resource professionals, and decision makers illustrate that even when quality data is collected and accepted by professional scientists and decision makers, the promotion of structural change could be enhanced if the methods chosen were more relevant and timely.  These results are used to build a model for resilient volunteer monitoring programs that can effectively empower citizens to promote change in their local watersheds.