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Michigan Clean Water Corps
The Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps) provides small start-up grants to entities wanting to establish a volunteer stream monitoring program. We applied in 2014 and received a full start-up award, creating our volunteer Stream Team.
Each spring and fall, we monitor eight sites along the Escanaba River, looking for macroinvertebrates that indicate the water quality and habitat availability at that site. Though the grant has ended, it allowed us to purchase necessary supplies and establish a solid base of volunteers to continue the monitoring into the future. These findings are important in considering care and quality of a local watershed. Now that the two-year funded project is finished, it is up to a volunteer base to continue the monitoring of these sites, and we truly appreciate our Stream Team volunteers!
The Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps) provides small start-up grants to entities wanting to establish a volunteer stream monitoring program. We applied in 2014 and received a full start-up award, creating our volunteer Stream Team.
Each spring and fall, we monitor eight sites along the Escanaba River, looking for macroinvertebrates that indicate the water quality and habitat availability at that site. Though the grant has ended, it allowed us to purchase necessary supplies and establish a solid base of volunteers to continue the monitoring into the future. These findings are important in considering care and quality of a local watershed. Now that the two-year funded project is finished, it is up to a volunteer base to continue the monitoring of these sites, and we truly appreciate our Stream Team volunteers!
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Bioindicators Bioindicators are life forms that are indicators of the quality of a particular habitat. For stream monitoring, we look at macroinvertebrates living in the streams we sample as our indicators. Some of these include dragonfly, stonefly, caddisfly and blackfly larvae, among many other species. Some of these species are very sensitive to changes in their environment, while others are quite tolerant. By seeing how many of what specie we collect, we can give the stream a quality score. Scoring Each of the stream sites we sample receives a score which corresponds to the overall health of the stream. To see how the sites have rated over the years of sampling, please head to the MiCorps webpage! |
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Volunteer
Would you be interested in volunteering for our monitoring program? Join our Stream Team! All age levels and experience levels are welcome to join! Please either call us at the office, drop us an email, or fill out our volunteer form to join us.
Volunteer
Would you be interested in volunteering for our monitoring program? Join our Stream Team! All age levels and experience levels are welcome to join! Please either call us at the office, drop us an email, or fill out our volunteer form to join us.
