Team of the Month - October 2011

This month, I would like to introduce a Stream Team that I have worked with in the past, but unfortunately have not had the time to work with recently - the Grand Glaize Stream Team 3491 led by Bob Jung and Darlene Haun.  This group came into being in 2007 to respond to a call for help from the St. Louis County Health Department.

The Health Department had earned a grant to improve water quality in several watersheds, including Grand Glaize.  They were hoping that Stream Team volunteers would be able to help them track water quality conditions in the streams they were working to improve.  I got together with Bob and Darlene and we put together a plan - what should we monitor, where, how often, etc. - all of the things that go into a solid water monitoring plan. It would seem that our plan was more realistic than that of the Health Department, because after about a year of effort, they ended up backing out on the grant.

Since this group began, they have monitored water chemistry at 13 sites in the Grand Glaize Creek watershed four times per year.  They have also done macroinvertebrate counts at each site.  Though the Health Department is no longer working on their grant in the Grand Glaize, the dedicated members of this Stream Team continue to collect their data.  Hopefully this data can be compiled into a report of some kind soon so that the Level 2 and 3 volunteers (as well as the many Intro Level, Level 1, and untrained participants) who have helped on this project will be able to see what this data can tell us about Grand Glaize Creek.  I'll keep you updated...

Well done Stream Team 3491!