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Adopt-A-Stream
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Adopt-A-Stream is a fun, easy, hands-on way to help improve water quality in the Grand Traverse Bay watershed.  The Watershed Center is taking the former Stream Search program to a new level thanks to a generous grant from the Alabaster Fund.  The watershed spans nearly 1,000 square miles, with shoreline stretching from the tip of the Leelanau peninsula to Norwood in Antrim County.  It takes all of us to protect and preserve our watershed:  individuals, schools, non-profits, governments and businesses.

 

Adopt-A-Stream is perfect for families, schools, neighborhood associations, scouting troops, land conservancies, service organizations, realtors, riparian landowners, developers, non-profits, local governments—just about anyone who cares about the deep link between the Grand Traverse Bay region’s water quality and our quality of life.

 

And all it takes is a couple hours twice a year!

Here's How it Works Top
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Here's What You Do:

  • Choose your favorite stream in the Grand Traverse Bay Watershed to monitor; it can even be in your own backyard.
  • Assemble a monitoring team of at least four individuals.  For example, it could be a child’s classroom, a group of coworkers or a family.
  • Pledge to monitor your stream once during June and October for three years.
  • Pay an annual fee of $300, which covers checking out really cool equipment from the Watershed Center, such as waders, nets, trays and jars. If that’s too much for your budget, we can match you with a business or organization sponsor.
  • Designate a team leader, who will receive training from the Watershed Center for sampling benthic macroinvertebrates.  That’s fancy scientific terminology for “aquatic insects.”  Team leaders will learn to collect, sort and identify aquatic insects; the type and number of aquatic insects present in a stream signify that stream’s health.  The team leader will also learn how to complete the survey sheet so testing results can be entered into a statewide database.

Here's What You Get:

  • Four team t-shirts; additional t-shirts are only $10 each
  • Recognition in the Watershed Center web site and newsletter 
  • Fun, hands-on, place-based education for kids
  • Pride of ownership in the Grand Traverse Bay region’s water quality and quality of life

Find Your Stream and a Team!

  • Spring sampling period:  any day during the first two weeks of June
  • Fall sampling period:  any day during the first two weeks of October
  • Team leader training:  immediately prior to sampling periods

To join the hands-on fun, contact Ellen Kohler at  231.935.1514 or ekohler@gtbay.org

Become an Adopt-A-Stream Program Sponsor! Top
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Businesses, organizations and individuals can become Adopt-A-Stream Program Sponsors for an annual fee of $500 for a minimum of three years.  In addition to the above, you receive:

  • Name and logo on annual Adopt-A-Stream t-shirt
  • Name and link on web site
  • Name and logo in all Watershed Moments print newsletters
  • Publicity on gtbaynews blog, Facebook page and Watershed Moments e-newsletter
  • Listing in all press releases
  • A unique medium for increasing your publicity that shows the community you actively invest in our region’s beauty and quality of life
Many Thanks to Our Program Sponsors! Top

 

 

Consumers Energy

FIM Group

Grand Traverse Resort and Spa

Katherine Roth, M.D. and Greg Holmes, Ph.D, Integrative Health and Wellbeing

Village of Northport

Joe and Christy Quandt

 

Thank You to Our Stream Sponsors! Top
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Acme Creek: Grand Traverse Resort and Spa 

 

Baker Creek:  TCAPS SciMaTech, sponsored by Joe and Christy Quandt 

 

Bingham Township Creek:  Walton Family and Neighbors 

 

Bissell Creek:  Kate Jaquish and John White Family 

 

Brewery Creek:  Melvin Family, sponsored by Orion 

 

Carpenter Creek:  Boardman Fly Tiers, sponsored by Great Lakes Environmental Center 

 

Cedar Creek/Hines Creek:  Youngflesh Family 

 

Jack’s Creek:  Old Mission Cub Scout Pack 26 and Boy Scout Troop 34, sponsored by Paula and David Kelley 

 

Kids Creek lower:  Katherine Roth, MD and Greg Holmes, PhD, sponsored by Integrative Health and Wellbeing 

 

Kids Creek upper:  Rotary Camps and Services Water Studies Committee 

 

Lee Creek:  Cherie Spaulding 

 

Miller Creek:  Blue Water Transportation 

 

Mitchell Creek:  Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and TBA Career-Tech Center’s Agriscience and Natural Resources class 

 

Mitchell Creek tributary:  Kathy Nichols 

 

Nelson Creek:  Eva Nelson 

 

Parker Creek:  Unitarian Universalist Congregation 

 

Rapid River:  Howard Family 

 

Swainston Creek:  Vicky Arlt 

 

Twenty-Two Creek:  Boardman Fly Tiers, sponsored by Great Lakes Environmental Center 

 

Weaver Creek lower:  Middleton Family 

 

Weaver Creek upper:  Fox-Eldredge Family 

 

Wilkinson Creek:  Williams and Caylor Families 

 

Williamsburg Creek:  Kate Jaquish and John White Family 

 

Yuba Creek:  TC Central Environmental Club, sponsored by Grand Traverse Organic Landscapes

 

Adopt-A-Stream Data Top

Check out stream scores from sampling results and the location of sampled streams.

Stream Health Summary

Stream Location Map

Click below for an aquatic insect ID chart
Check out Adopt-A-Stream in the Virtual World Top

Check out Adopt-A-Stream on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpc6mgjtVmM

 

And check out the adventures of Cherie Spaulding's Adopt-A-Stream team on her blog:  http://juststreaming.blogspot.com/

This page last updated on 4/28/2010.
If you have any questions or problems while using our website please contact us at 231.935.1514 or info@gtbay.org
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