By Dave Kronk

Although it functions as a geographic divide, a watershed also unites its inhabitants who share an interest in maintaining water quality and natural resource health throughout a landscape. This concept was recently used to involve school kids in the vicinity of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan, in a science program that spotlights the many common connections people and park resources have with a watershed.

In spring 2000 the conservation district adjoining Pictured Rocks received a grant to set up a local watershed advisory council. The purpose of the council is to advise the community about the conservation and proper use of natural resources within that watershed. It is a strictly advisory group with no legal authority.

The education outreach coordinator for the national lakeshore jumped at the opportunity to be a part of the Munising Bay Watershed Council and help park neighbors understand the importance of science and resource management within the watershed and park. The director of the council was hired in the fall, and together the two quickly joined forces to plan methods of collecting data on the watershed with help from local schoolchildren. State of Michigan science goals and objectives emphasize that students should be able to apply science concepts to real-world contexts. Thus, finding a middle school teacher who was willing to work with the park and the council to help meet these classroom objectives was not difficult.

The collaboration began with the watershed council director mapping the watershed, identifying its streams, and locating important data collection sites. The park’s role was to prepare the students for conducting the water quality tests at various plots, including a site within the national lakeshore. Educational materials from the Izaak Walton League called Hands on Save Our Streams and the GREEN Water Quality Monitoring Kit were used to show students in the classroom how they would go about collecting stream macroinvertebrates; testing the water for pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, nitrates, phosphates, and turbidity; and measuring stream flow and volume in the field. The teacher divided his classes into teams responsible for different tests or data collections. A high school journalism teacher joined in by sending a photographer and reporters to document the fieldwork and would later help the watershed council publish a biannual newsletter. Over several days in fall 2000, the participants had a lot of fun collecting real-world stream data in order to better understand their watershed, identify potential natural resource issues, and make informed recommendations to protect watershed quality. The national lakeshore will use the data as part of the resource inventory and possibly the aquatic monitoring program.

The council director and the park coordinator visited the school after the data were compiled and worked with the students to analyze the results. The kids participated in activities from an excellent curriculum called Project WET, which helped them understand potential human impacts on stream quality. In closing, the two activity leaders thanked the teacher and his classes for participating and explained that though conservation districts and national parks are working to protect water quality within their boundaries, some watersheds are very large and extend far beyond park or district boundaries. Therefore, they explained, when citizens become involved in resource management by examining the watersheds in their own backyards, they may also be helping to protect the watersheds of the national parks.