Thank you to all who attended training

If you are interested in participating or in learning more about monitoring, contact Jaime Welch at jwelch@flintriver.org or at 810-767-7140.

Spring Water Monitoring Lab information

We have set our dates for Spring Monitoring! Our Water Quality Labs will be held in Genesee on Thursday, May 2nd from 12-6 pm, with a second date to be determined, and in Lapeer on Saturday, May 4th from 12-4 pm at the following locations:

Information on our Water Quality Monitoring Program

What is Water Quality Monitoring (benthic monitoring) and why do we care about what lives in our local streams? Freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates, or more simply “benthics”, are animals without backbones that are larger than ½ millimeter (the size of a pencil dot). These animals live on rocks, logs, sediment, debris and aquatic plants during some period in their life. The benthics include crustaceans such as crayfish, mollusks such as clams and snails, aquatic worms and the immature forms of aquatic insects such as stonefly, dragonfly, and mayfly nymphs.

water penny

These animals that live in the stream have different levels of sensitivity to pollution. Some can live only in water with little or no pollution, but others can exist even with surprising levels of pollution. By collecting them and noting what types and how many of each type are living in the stream, we can get an idea of how healthy the river is. The more benthics we find that are sensitive, the higher the score, meaning the healthier the stream is. We track that information from season to season and year to year, and share it with both local and state agencies. Every Spring and Fall the FRWC monitors 34 different sites in and around Genesee and Lapeer county. Our monitoring process revolves around a specific 300 foot stretch at each stream so that we are consistent in monitoring the same area every time. As part of the process we spend 90 “wet net” minutes collecting at a site. This means that regardless of how many volunteers you have at a site, the total time spent collecting is 90 minutes. So if you have 2 volunteers collecting, you would each spend 45 minutes sampling all the available habitats within the 300 ft stretch.

Mayfly Nymph

• Cumulative Monitoring Chart Master
• DEQ Monitoring Program Presentation
• Volunteer for the Flint River Monitoring Program

Forms and procedures used for monitoring

• Volunteer Monitoring In Stream Procedure Guidelines
• Stream Assessment & Collection Standard Operating Procedure
• Laboratory Standard Operating Procedure
• FRWC Stream Assessment Form
• Macroinvertebrate Key
• FRWC Monitoring Quality Assurance Project Plan

Monitoring Sites Interactive Watershed MAPThis interactive map shows sites, scores, directions, and photos.

(The map is best viewed in Firefox or Google Chrome.  If using Internet Explorer, use the links on the side of the page.)

Monitoring Gilkey Creek

The restored Gilkey Creek easily holds high flows after a heavy rain. The FRWC has contracted with the Applewood Estate to conduct chemical and biological monitoring of the Gilkey Creek to assess the impact of stream restoration activities. We are pleased to note that no significant impact was found during the construction season, and the health of the creek continues to improve as the creek reestablishes in its new course. The reports on our work are below. 2010

Gilkey Creek at Kearsley Park

2010 GC Assessment Report 07-10 GC Report Appendix 2009 2009 GC Assessment Report 2009 GC Report Appendix2008 2007

Stream Profiling on the Gilkey Creek

The FRWC contracted with the UM-Flint Center for Applied Environmental Research to conduct stream profiling, an assessment of stream bank stability on the Gilkey Creek. Check back here soon to access copies of those reports.