Volunteers from OU needed for Clinton River watershed survey

By Dan Bodene, contributing writer

Interested in helping out the environment, protecting local rivers and streams and learning about aquatic insects all at the same time?

Everyone in the Oakland University community is invited to find out how, at a training session from 6-9 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5, in the Oakland Center’s Heritage Room. The goal is to gather and educate volunteers for a program to monitor water quality in the Clinton River watershed.

The Clinton River Watershed Council’s Adopt-A-Stream program was created to get citizen involvement in assessing the health of creeks and streams within the watershed, which covers 760 square miles and includes 1,000 miles of streams in addition to 80 miles of the main branch of the Clinton River itself.

Volunteers from the Oakland community are invited to attend the April 5 training session to learn how to collect data for an upcoming fieldwork survey organized by the watershed council.

Training will involve a classroom-style introduction to the program as well as a field demonstration of the techniques used to conduct the survey (so participants should dress appropriately). Volunteers will learn about the local watershed, its pollution concerns and how to collect samples and assess the stream environment.

Volunteers collect and sort through data from a streambed to monitor the Clinton River Watershed.

Oakland has been playing a part in the Adopt-A-Stream effort for a couple of years now.

Cora Hanson, OU’s manager of Environmental Health & Life Safety, who is active with Oakland’s Adopt-A-Stream efforts, said the program is critical to protect local streams and rivers by gathering data on macroinvertebrates, or bugs, and streamside habitat.

Rain and snowmelt runoff into the watershed brings pollution and erosion issues. Assessing the number and type of bugs can indicate a stream’s relative health, while information on habitat can identify potential sediment and erosion problems, Hanson said.

OU volunteers will participate in a survey of Galloway Creek, which runs through campus, on Friday, May 13. It is one of 50 locations in the watershed that will be surveyed by more than 300 Adopt-A-Stream volunteers. Surveys of the watershed are done twice each year, in May and October.

For more information on the Adopt-A-Stream program, visit the Clinton River Watershed Council’s website or call (248) 601-0606. Information on OU’s stormwater management program is available on the Environmental Health & Safety website.