| February 20, 2008 |
The Michigan Clean Water Corps has seleceted the Pine River/Van Etten Lake Watershed as one of the next locations to begin a volunteer stream monitoring program. The Michigan Clean Water Corps, known as MiCorps, has fully funded an application written with the purpose of initiating a volunteer stream-monitoring program at selected sites throughout the Pine River/Van Etten Lake Watershed.
The project will monitor water quality at a number of selected sites, two times a year. The timing of the monitoring events will be late spring/early summer and late summer/early fall. By sampling at these times, we hope to get a representation of insects that have not yet hatched into adults in the spring, and then have had enough time to develop through the summer by fall.
Based on the composition and numbers of macro-invertebrates that are collected per sampling event, a value will be assigned to each site. As certain species of insects are indicative of the quality of the water, our sampling will be able to establish baseline water quality data. If any changes in the quality of the water occur, they will be reflected in the aquatic macro-invertebrate community. Negative changes in water quality will then be reported to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for further investigation.
Above Photo: 2 net-spinning caddisfly larvae and a gilled (right-handed) snail |
| Patrick Ertel
Project Manager
989.344.0753 x19
patrick@huronpines.org |
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