The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay will deploy dozens of volunteers to wadeable stream sites across the Grand Traverse Bay watershed to monitor water quality for two weeks in early June. Through a partnership with the Michigan Clean Water Corps and generous funding and support provided by local and regional program sponsors and donors, The Watershed Center’s Adopt-A-Stream program has collected high-quality stream data for over two decades.
Twice a year, trained volunteers monitor stream habitat and aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity and abundance at over 25 stream sites spanning Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Antrim counties. Aquatic macroinvertebrates are organisms that live all or part of their life cycle in water (aquatic), are large enough to be seen with the naked eye (macro), and lack a backbone (invertebrate).
Macroinvertebrates are used as biological indicators of stream health as they are relatively easy to monitor, have short life cycles and therefore reflect recent changes in stream health, and have known tolerances to pollutants.
Stream monitoring sites include tributaries of several major river systems including the Boardman/Ottaway River, Mitchell Creek, Rapid River, Acme Creek, and Yuba Creek, as well as several smaller tributaries that empty into Grand Traverse Bay.
“Many of these streams have little or no preexisting water quality data so enabling volunteers to fill this data gap through the Adopt-A-Stream program has been essential in helping us further understand local stream systems and monitor them for emerging threats,” says Grand Traverse Bay WATERKEEPER Heather Smith.
Data collected by Adopt-AStream volunteers is used in management and restoration decisions by local and state resource professionals. Data is used to flag issues, evaluate stream segments to prioritize for restoration, assess restoration efforts, establish water quality baselines, monitor for invasive species, and support advocacy messaging. In 2025, select Adopt-A-Stream sites will be monitored for didymo, also known as rock snot, an invasive species of algae found in some streams and rivers across the state.
On Sunday, June 8, The Watershed Center is teaming up with the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy to host a oneday stream monitoring event from noon to 4 p.m. at the Mitchell Creek Meadows: The Don & Jerry Olson Nature Preserve. Participants will receive a brief orientation to the Adopt-AStream program before sampling aquatic macroinvertebrates in several tributaries to Mitchell Creek. No experience is necessary, and a light lunch will be provided. Please register in advance at gtbay.org/dive-in-doyour- part.
Adopt-A-Stream would not be possible without the generous support of program sponsors and donors.
“We are grateful for the businesses and individuals who know the value of the Adopt-A-Stream program and give generously to fuel ongoing stream monitoring efforts,” said the Watershed Center’s Directorof Philanthropy Michelle Handke. “Their support has helped us identify and address threats to our waterways, such as pollution and invasive species, year after year.”
For more information about this program, visit gtbay.org/ adopt-a-stream.
