2009 Volunteer Stream Monitoring Award Winners
Wisconsinites from Riveredge Nature Center in Newburg, Central Wisconsin Trout Unlimited, South Fork Flambeau River Watershed Association, and Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School are being recognized for their outstanding efforts to help monitor and improve the health of Wisconsin’s streams and build the ranks of volunteers committed to the cause.
The Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin-Extension present Stream Monitoring Awards every year to recognize people for their exemplary work leading to increased participation in stream monitoring, collecting stream data, and sharing their knowledge of stream monitoring.
The awards program aims to promote the awareness of and participation in volunteer stream monitoring work in Wisconsin, which has more than 42,000 miles of year-round streams and rivers, according to Kris Stepenuck, Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program Coordinator for UWEX/WDNR. “The caliber of work these award winners are doing to help monitor and protect streams, and to share their knowledge with others, is tremendous.”
Congratulations to this year's winners! The awards were presented at the statewide Volunteer Stream Monitoring Symposium at UW-Stevens Point on January 24, 2009.
Monitoring Adult:
Dick Pollock
Dick Pollock initiated his participation in stream monitoring as a volunteer in spring of 2005. He took the reigns as the Monitoring Coordinator for the Central Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited later that year, and worked tirelessly as their coordinator through 2008. During his tenure, he was responsible for coordinating the Chapter’s involvement in both Water Action Volunteers’ Level 1 and Level 2 stream monitoring, and helped initiate their involvement in several Level 3 special research projects. Dick organized their participation in a pilot project to teach volunteers to identify macroinvertebrates to family level. He also worked with other CWTU members to develop grant proposals to fund monitoring efforts on impaired waters. To accomplish these projects, he partnered with WDNR biologists, and County and USDA staff. By 2008, over 27 sites were monitored by nearly 50 people in Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Marquette, Waupaca and Waushara Counties. Dick also worked with other CWTU members to share the stream monitoring program with school students, by staffing educational booths, and developing a game in which students could learn about streams. As nominator Robert Haase said, CWTU’s contributions to water monitoring “would not have been possible without the planning, coordination, and follow-up that Dick provided.”
Monitoring Employee:
Mary Holleback
Mary Holleback has been Riveredge Nature Center’s Adult Program Coordinator for over 17 years. She has directed 40 high schools in 7 counties in the Milwaukee River Basin “Testing the Waters” program since she was hired in 1991. Over 25,000 students have participated in the program under her leadership! She is also a local coordinator for the Water Action Volunteers program, hosting annual trainings for volunteers and working in partnership with various co-sponsoring groups over the years including Milwaukee’s Riverkeepers and Washington County Water Watchers. She participates as a Level 2 stream monitoring volunteer and helps coordinate other volunteers to monitor 5 sites in the Riveredge Nature Center area. Mary hosted and supported Level 3 crayfish monitoring in streams and rivers, and in the past three years has implemented a new Level 3 ephemeral pond monitoring project. She also provides training and support to over 40 Lake Sturgeon rearing facility volunteers. This program’s goal is to re-establish a breeding population of Lake Sturgeon in the Milwaukee River by increasing awareness of and motivating efforts to improve stream quality in the Milwaukee River Watershed. Mary is also a founding member of Friends of Cedarburg Bog, and contributes to many of their activities including stream monitoring, buckthorn removal, and boardwalk construction. As nominator Gail Epping Overholt noted, Mary is “ a remarkable person who truly gives back to the earth…this nomination is long overdue and Mary is deserving of this award many times over.” Also in support of her nomination, Gary Korb noted “I do not see how someone more qualified or deserving than Mary could be found.”
Group:
The South Fork Flambeau River Watershed Association
The South Fork Flambeau River Watershed Association was initiated in 2005. The group applied for and was granted at WDNR River Protection Grant, which included conducting monitoring at four sites in the watershed, as not much monitoring data were available. The group also was trained to conduct Water Action Volunteers stream monitoring that year and implemented monitoring on additional sites using these methods. The group found abnormally high E. coli bacteria counts early on and contacted WDNR and the Price County Health and Zoning Departments. Then they worked diligently to collect weekly samples to help determine the source of the contamination, and worked with the Health Dept. to alert citizens in the area to the problem. In the end, they located both failed septic systems and two illegal direct discharges of sewage to the river, and actions were taken to correct the problems. Since 2006, the group has participated in Level 2 Stream Monitoring with WDNR and River Alliance of Wisconsin. They monitor tributaries to the Flambeau River, based on 2005 monitoring suggesting impairment in one tributary. The group has also worked on various stewardship and restoration projects in the watershed, including helping USDA Forest Service move over 2000 mussels to a safe location during a construction project. The group maintains a quarterly newsletter, and received a grant to develop a website, display board and brochure about the watershed and riparian stewardship within it. They host a series of workshops and activities to engage others in learning about and protecting the river and associated natural resources including river clean ups, breakfast by the river, and numerous ecological programs with invited speakers. The group now has over 60 members, and, as nominator Robert Lobermeier stated, they have “been instrumental in bringing about positive changes that will improve the well being of the Flambeau River”.
Teacher/Classroom:
Jon Johnson and his Environmental Science Classes at Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School
Jon Johnson and his Environmental Science Classes at Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School have been actively involved in volunteer stream monitoring efforts since 2005. According to the GET High School Environmental Science website, Jon obtained a local water quality grant from WDNR to conduct “surveys for habitat, water quality, macroinvertebrates and fish on Hardies Creek.” The creek was listed on the state’s impaired waters list, so the students’ work helped determine why the creek was impaired. They used Geographic Information Systems modeling of the stream (and two others for comparison) to help determine this. The students prepared a report with recommendations of how to restore the stream, and their results were presented at the National Water Quality Monitoring Conference in 2006. Jon then accepted an invitation to be part of the Level 2 stream monitoring pilot project in 2006 and has participated with his students each year since. As nominator Dan Helsel, WDNR Basin Supervisor noted, Jon’s “students committed a portion of their summer vacation time every two weeks to monitors 4 streams, each at two locations.” In addition to monitoring the four parameters of the Level 2 program, the students assisted WDNR staff in monitoring habitat and fish at the sites. Jon then obtained a grant from the WDNR Partnership Program to develop an online database to record the information being collected (since they collected information above and beyond either WAV or Level 2 data). This database contains the information Jon’s students collected and is able to be modified for use by other schools conducting similar monitoring efforts. Jon’s students have also gone on to conduct independent stream monitoring projects, including studying crayfish of the area. Jon and his students’ efforts serve as a model for other schools, demonstrating a real world connection with monitoring conducted by trained and dedicated high school students.