Michigan
Technological University
Tel:
906-487-3341 Email: jchadde@mtu.edu
Nicole Vidales, Aquatic
Biologist
Surface Water Quality
Division
Michigan Dept. of
Environmental Quality
Lansing, MI
Tel: 517-241-9534 Email:
VIDALESN@state.mi.us
Objectives: (1) To increase participants understanding of how
the land use activities which
take place in a watershed
influence stream health;
(2) To familiarize students with DEQ protocols for
collecting physical, chemical and biological data used to assess stream health;
(3) To show how to submit water quality data to DEQ
Equipment: water chemistry kits,
biological monitoring kits, meter sticks and (75’) logger tapes, D-frame
aquatic nets and 2 kick screens, tubs, forceps,
macroinvertebrate ID sheets, data forms; rubber boots
or chest-waders
Description:
Streams, rivers, and other aquatic
ecosystems are the “hot spots” in landscapes because of the crucial roles they
play in landscape connectivity, wildlife habitat, biological diversity,
recreation, etc. It is important to
understand the interactions between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and
relate land uses to water quality within a watershed context. Through presentation, slides and videos of
streams, participants will be exposed to a number of land uses that have the
potential to impair water quality:
timber harvest, road building, livestock grazing, off road recreation,
residential/commercial development, etc.
Through field exercises, students will collect biological, physical,
chemical, and channel stability data at two different streams and evaluate the
health of each stream.
The class will be divided into groups of 3
students per group. Each group will
collect the following data at each stream:
a) biological – sample for aquatic macroinvertebrates using D-frame and kick
nets
b)
physical – measure channel width, depth, and
calculate stream volume and velocity
c)
chemical – analyze water samples for
dissolved oxygen, pH, phosphate, nitrate, turbidity, temperature
d)
channel stability – conduct a qualitative
stream reach and channel stability inventory
Schedule
8:30 – 10:30 am Presentation on evaluating stream health within a watershed
context:
a) physical stream characteristics
b) rapid bio-assessment
c) water chemistry
d) stream reach inventory and channel stability evaluation, including
riparian and in-stream habitat assessment
Watch portions of
2 videos on:
¨ Montana’s Riparian Areas - riparian management for different land uses;
¨ Save Our Streams – A guide to water quality monitoring, stream macro-invertebrate ID, and
macro-invertebrate sampling techniques.
10:30 - 10:45 Break and load vans
10:45 - 11:45 Stream monitoring at Sturgeon River (Canyon Fall rest
area)
12:00 - 12:45 pm Lunch
1:00-1:45 Stream
monitoring at Linden Creek in L’Anse
2:00 – 3:00 pm Discussion of data collected from each stream (Ford
Forestry Center)
3:00-3:30 Workshop
Evaluation