PowerPoint Development Tool For the Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program Enabling YOU to make your own presentations

1. PowerPoint Development Tool For the Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program Enabling YOU to make your own presentations

2. What is the purpose of this PowerPoint? • The resources contained in this PowerPoint file are to help anyone interested in the MiCorps program develop their own presentation. • Simply keep the slides you are interested in, delete those you are not.

3. MiCorps Overview

4. “Together, we’ll create the nation’s most comprehensive and meaningful clean water monitoring system, building a water legacy for generations to come.” Former Governor Jennifer Granholm 2003

5. MiCorps Mission Network and expand volunteer water quality monitoring organizations statewide for the purpose of collecting, sharing, and using reliable data. Educate and inform the public about water quality issues Foster water resources stewardship to facilitate the preservation and protection of Michigan’s water resources.

6. MiCorps- What is it? • MiCorps consists of two main programs concentrating on volunteer stream and lake monitoring. • Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program (VSMP) • Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program (CLMP) • Other components of MiCorps that support the 2 main programs are: • - Grants (Streams only) • - Trainings • - Annual Conference • - Newsletter • - Email ListServ for discussion and news • - Web site • - Web-based, publically available, searchable database

7. MiCorps concentration in quality assurance gives us… More reliable data Which gives us: Greater use by the DEQ and local managers in planning and management Continued funding of the program.

8. Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program (VSMP)

9. What would a successful volunteer stream monitoring program look like? You collect data about your fresh water You use it to and the monitoring process to educate and foster stewardship, & get people to independently take action. You continually are reaching new people. Human impacts to the watershed are alleviated. MiCorps helps you with the first bullet with money, training, and assistance. The next three bullets require further dedication and elbow grease that go beyond a MiCorps grant.

10. $50,000 is available every year Full grant: $10-15k Startup grant: $1 – 3k Full grants last 2 years Start-up grants last 1 year. Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program (VSMP) • A grant-based program for local groups to develop or enhance stream monitoring programs. Groups must be non-profits, academic, or local government. The VSMP annual training day

11. Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program Since 2005, 28 Groups have received grants. Including: Cannon Township Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council Friends of the St.Clair River Muskegon River Watershed Assembly Branch County Conservation District Upper Peninsula Resource Conservation and Development Council

12. Stream Program Components Groups who receive grants are expected to: • Find, engage, train volunteers • Collect and identify macroinvertebrates • Monitor habitat • Databases (MDE, Volunteer) • Verify & interpret the data • Follow up as needed with relevant authorities based on the results of monitoring.

13. What support do grantees get from MiCorps? Money Training, procedures, technical assistance. A solid reputation. Plugged into the MiCorps network.

14. Scientifically Useful Good indicators of stream conditions Diversity = Healthy stream A scarcity of bugs may indicate: Sedimentation Habitat loss Chemical pollution Hydrology problems Great for Volunteers Easy sampling techniques- great for volunteers Generally abundant communities- volunteers find them quickly. Why collect bugs?

15. How do MiCorps groups collect bugs? • Each team member gets a job- collector, scribe, picker, shuttler, leader, etc. • Collector works upstream collecting along ~300 foot reach. Collector samples a variety of microhabitats. • Store in 70% ethanol until identification and for long term storage. Avoid rubbing alcohol. • Groups hold identification events

16. How do MiCorps groups collect bugs? • The goal is to find as many different types as possible, not collect a certain number. • This differs from standard DEQ procedures. It is more volunteer friendly. • Time limits: Generally, one collector should collect between 30-45, until you don’t see anything new.

17. Stream Macroinvertebrate Datasheet

18. Suggestions for Reporting Your Data • The MiCorps stream quality score is calculated from the macroinvertebrate datasheet. • Do not compare the MiCorps score between sites that are much different from each other (esp. in regards to stream sizes, geology, and temperature.) • This is an unfair comparison since some streams will naturally have more bugs than others (i.e. a naturally rocky stream vs. a naturally sandy stream). • The best use of a MiCorps score is to track long term trends for a SINGLE site, and NOT to compare sites.

19. The following 2 slides are examples of a site monitoring report that could be developed for stakeholders or volunteers.The Huron River Watershed Council uses PowerPoint as a layout tool for these reports, which are then printed.

20. Boyden Creek at Delhi Road 2 Adopt-a-Stream Site Report, updated January 2011 Overall Condition: Good There are many kinds of bugs at this site, especially for such a small watershed, and several of them are sensitive.  The water is clean and cool and the stream banks are healthy. Although the habitat is limited by some sand in the swift flowing areas (riffles), the stream clearly has good quality, and it has clearly improved over the last 12 years. • Measuring Stream Quality • We use the bugs living in the creek to measure stream quality for two reasons. When the stream is rich in habitat variety it will have many diverse kinds of bugs (called families). Also, some bugs (called sensitive) can live only in good quality streams; they die in a poor quality stream. Any stream with sensitive families has the clean water and good habitat required by those bugs to survive. Long Terms Trends at this site, based on the MiCorps Stream Quality Score. Each point represents a 3 year average of the samples taken at this site. Monitoring Data These data come from HRWC volunteers who have monitored this site 20 times, starting in 1998. This site on Boyden Creek is only 11 feet wide and a few inches deep, with an occasional one-foot deep “pool”. In 2007 we found nice habitat here, good stable substrate on the bottom and fully vegetated banks. However, more than half of the rocks in the riffles were clogged with sand, limiting the living spaces for bugs and other creatures. It has clean and very cold water (seldom over 68°F) and very little urban runoff. There is good variety of bugs here for a site with such a small watershed, including several that are sensitive. In the spring we typically find an average of 13 different families and usually two or three are sensitive families that require a good quality stream. In the fall an average of 18 families are typically found, with a sensitive one each time. That is remarkably good for such a small stream in the Huron River system! In the winter we find the smaller of two stonefly families that only grow during the cold, winter months. They are dormant the rest of the year. Photo credit: Lydia Austin Huron River Watershed Council, 1100 N. Main Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, (734) 769-5124 x 601. Please contact psteen@hrwc.org or go to www.hrwc.org for more information.

21. Boyden Creek at Delhi Road Background Information What You Can Do Help us improve Boyden Creek! Plant trees and deep-rooted plants in low areas on your property to help the rain infiltrate into the earth so it can be cleansed and cooled. Go to www.hrwc.org/take-action for ways to keep the rain at home so that it doesn’t wash pollutants into the stream and cause flooding from the sudden increase in flow volume. Site History Boyden Creek was named after Luther Boyden who came to Michigan from Massachusetts in 1826. He and Thomas Alexander drew straws to determine the location of their property in what is now Webster Township, just north of Joy Road. Boyden won, and he chose the level, burr oak area, which became known as Boyden’s Plains and the source of Boyden Creek. He became locally famous as the first man in Webster to persuade his neighbors to help raise a barn without offering them whiskey. A part of this creek was straightened by dredging several years ago to follow the property line. However, when the water level is high enough it returns to follow the original, meandering course. How is the Creek affected by land use here? This site on Boyden Creek is small, receiving water from only 6 square miles of land, mostly farms. This is one of the most rural areas in the Huron watershed, according to data from 2000. Only 7% of the Boyden Creek watershed is developed while more than half of the land is used for agriculture. At that time, only 4% of the land was covered by impervious surface. Impervious surface prevents rain from being filtered and cleaned through the soil and, instead, delivers it quickly to the stream, carrying pollutants and causing surging flows that damage the habitat and insect community. Creeks tend to start degrading once the watershed is more than 10 % impervious and become badly degraded by 25%. [The most urbanized Huron River creek (Millers Creek) is 45% impervious.] Watershed land use in 2000: 68% Agriculture, 7% Urban, 5% Forest, 7% Open, 13% Wetland. Google 2011 Insects found in at least two sampling events from 2008-2010: *Capniidae — slender winter stonefly *Nemouridae — Nemourid broadback stonefly *Perlodidae — Perlodid stonefly Baetidae — small minnow mayfly Calopterygidae — broad-winged damselfly Chironomidae — midge Elmidae — riffle beetle Heptageniidae — flathead mayfly Hydropsychidae — common net- spinner caddisfly Limnephilidae — northern caddisfly Simuliidae — black fly Tipulidae — crane fly Uenoidae — Uenoid caddisfly *Sensitive Family

22. Macroinvertebrate Training

23. Flying Adults Complete Metamorphosis Typically but not always terrestrial Aquatic Pupae Midge (True Fly) Life Cycle Other groups: Beetles Alderflies Dobsonflies Caddisflies Eggs Aquatic Larvae (many growth instars)

24. Incomplete Metamorphosis Nymph (aquatic) Numerous growth instars Adults (typically but not always terrestrial ) Other groups: Mayflies Stoneflies True Bugs

25. Let’s meet the bugs! Group 1: Sensitive MiCorps procedures requires identification down to the taxonomic levels shown in the next few slides. Groups can choose to identify to a lower taxonomic level if that is their desire. If you use these slides for training purposes, we recommend that every participant receives a datasheet so they can see the listing of the different groups.

26. Caddisflies Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Trichoptera

27. Common Net-spinning Caddisfly NOT a sensitive species 10 mm Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Trichoptera Family: Hydropsychidae

28. 3mm 44mm

29. Order Megaloptera: Note the Differences! • Hellgrammite • (family Corydalidae) • No distinct, single tail • Generally larger Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Megaloptera • Alderfly • (family Sialidae) • Distinct, single tail • Generally smaller

30. Mayflies Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Ephemeroptera

31. Gilled Snail Have an operculum or plate-like door that protects the opening of the shell and can be quickly closed to avoid predators. Coiled shells that usually open on the right-hand side. Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastropoda Order: various

32. Stonefly Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Plecoptera Adult Nymph

33. More stoneflies

34. Water Penny Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Coleoptera Family: Psephenidae The adult water penny is not found in the water!

35. Watersnipe Fly Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Diptera Family: Athericidae

36. Group 2: Somewhat-Sensitive

37. Order Megaloptera: Note the Differences! • Hellgrammite • (family Corydalidae) • No distinct, single tail • Generally larger Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Megaloptera • Alderfly • (family Sialidae) • Distinct, single tail • Generally smaller

38. Beetles Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Coleoptera

39. Beetles Chewing or biting mouthparts 3 Pairs of legs Generally well sclerotized

40. Black Fly Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Diptera Family: Simuliidae

41. Clams & other bivalves Phylum: Mollusca Class: Pelecypoda Order: various Do not collect large clams/mussels. Leave these in the creek.

42. Crane Fly Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Diptera Family: Tipulidae Huge Diversity in sizes (one useful character: mandibles on horizontal plane)

43. Crayfish Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Decapoda

44. Damselflies Dragonflies & • Slender body • Three tails Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Odonata Suborder: Anisoptera & Zygoptera • Stout body • No tails

45. Common Net-spinning Caddisfly NOT a sensitive species 10 mm Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Trichoptera Family: Hydropsychidae

46. Scuds, Sideswimmers Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Crustacea Order: Amphipoda

47. Sowbugs Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Crustacea Order: Isopoda

48. Group 3: Tolerant

49. Aquatic Worms (class Oligochaeta) Phylum: Annelida Class: Oligochaeta Order: various Note the segments!

50. Leeches Phylum: Annelida Class: Hirundae Order: various