By Ella Ford, 2024 MISG summer undergraduate intern
Hi there! My name is Ella, and I am a fifth-year senior at Wayne State University in Detroit majoring in Environmental Science and minoring in Social Work and Social Justice. I am currently in the midst of completing an internship at the Clinton River Watershed Council in Rochester Hills.
Just collected benthic macroinvertebrates in Avon Creek to show at the Art, Fish, Fun Festival in Pontiac on 6/8! This was my first time in waders. Photo: Ella Ford
My project with the Clinton River Watershed Council focuses on assisting in the facilitation and expansion of their Stream Leaders program, which provides first-hand connections between K-12 students and the Clinton River Watershed through local waterbody assessments. Encompassing a mass of Metro Detroit, the Clinton River Watershed is composed of thousands of lakes, ponds, wetlands, and streams that drain into Lake St. Clair, into the Detroit River, and eventually into Lake Erie. Townships within the watershed include Orion, Clinton, Brandon, Ray, Chesterfield, and more. Fun fact: the watershed has an area of 760 square miles!
Given that a waterbody site is accessible for wading, Stream Leaders sessions can be held at various locations throughout the Watershed. Monitoring occurs annually in the Fall and Spring. The program provides three stations for sessions: biological, physical, and chemical. At the CRWC office, a nature hike/tour around Avon Creek is offered as a fourth station. Students stay at each station for about 20 minutes before rotating to the next one.
At the biological station, students dress in waders and collect aquatic macroinvertebrates from their site using D-nets. Students not in waders help gather the net contents into a tub, pick through the collections, and identify the macroinvertebrates. Identification keys are provided by CRWC (or can be made by the teachers and mentors) to help students identify organisms. The students use plastic spoons, tweezers, and pipettes as picking tools.
Students collecting benthic macroinvertebrates using a kick net in the Clinton River at Innovation Hills Park on 5/29. Photo: Ella Ford
The physical station allows students to visually assess the site. Students identify if erosion is present, if there is trash along the site banks, the types of vegetation and wildlife seen, and more. The depth, width, and velocity of the site are measured, as well.
Students test for a handful of constituents at the chemical station using collected site water and provided LaMotte kits with chemical tablets, small test tubes, and easy-to-follow instructions. The constituents tested for are dissolved oxygen, nitrate, phosphate, biological oxygen demand, pH, turbidity, temperature change, and fecal coliform bacteria.
The activities in the biological and chemical stations result in numerical scores, which help determine the overall health of the site. For instance, the identification of 5 Stonefly nymphs (which are pollution sensitive), 3 crayfish (which are somewhat pollution sensitive), and 7 Midge larvae (which are pollution tolerant) at the biological station can result in a stream quality score of “Good” (on a scale of “Poor” to “Excellent”). The worksheets used by the students to guide them through the stations and determine scores can be found in CRWC’s Stream Leaders Monitoring Guide.
A Hellgramite and crayfish collected at Stony Creek on 5/22. Photo: Ella Ford
I have had a great experience in learning the ins-and-outs of the Watershed and the Stream Leaders program so far. I grew up in Macomb County, which houses the Clinton River. While I was in such close proximity to this river and other waterbodies, I knew very little about the watershed. This internship has been personally significant for this reason. I had never waded in the watershed, I did not know what kinds of organisms could be found in its waters, or that the water could be paddled in….until now!
Nearly every day I am at CRWC, I try new activities and gain skills that can be applied to my future career path. Much of my experience has been learning. My favorite moments so far have been collecting bugs and observing drone searches for woody debris in Lake St. Clair! I am looking forward to the remainder of my time at CRWC and speaking about my experience at the Michigan Sea Grant Symposium this August.
Using a drone to survey Lake St. Clair for woody debris on 6/12. Photo: Ella Ford
