Hey everyone,
I know last year some of you may remember taking a fishing survey about targeting the different species of Lake Michigan. The survey was for my grad school program and this workshop is as well. If all goes well, I'll be receiving my Masters in Zoology in the Fall of 2015.
Anyways, besides being a member of CLF and a grad student, I'm a certified trainer and stream monitor for the Stream Discovery program which is very similar to the well known RiverWatch, both organized and offered by the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center in Alton, IL. I go out and trap rusty crayfish (yes I have permits for them), monitor stream conditions and do macro invertebrate sampling in Salt Creek and the Desplaines River with school groups in hopes that their classes will become lifelong stream stewards. I've also talked to the public about these efforts at special events and conferences and am trying to expand the program this spring.
The NGRREC and Izaac Walton's Creek Freaks have partnered together to offer a two day workshop for teachers, scout groups and community organizations in order to train new stream monitors in northern Illinois. Basically, if you sign up and get trained, you will be able to monitor a local stream, creek or river and conduct macro invertebrate samplings, water quality tests and perform trash cleanups. Monitoring efforts only have to be conducted once a year, although your group can visit the site as much as they like. This is great opportunity for teachers, scouts and individual groups to learn more about their waterways and participate in statewide monitoring efforts as citizen scientists.
If anyone is interested, has questions or would like PDF copies to hand out to interested parties, more information can be found at the link below,
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/creek-f...ts-13025707241
I participated in a workshop last summer in Peoria and Riverwatch has quite a presence in central, western and southern Illinois. We also went into the Spoon River and collected caddisflies, craneflies and scuds which was really cool. While organizations like Friends of the Chicago River, Friends of the Fox River and even some of the Forest Preserve Districts participate in Riverwatch, Stream Discovery is not represented up here and I hope to change that. It is honestly a fun and relatively easy program to be a part of and is geared towards elementary and middle school aged children, unlike Riverwatch which is geared more towards adults and high school kids.
Thanks for reading!