Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay
Encyclopedia
The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay was founded in 1990. This non-profit organization
advocates for clean water in Grand Traverse Bay
and protects and preserves the Bay's watershed
.
This environmental organization
's work encompasses Leelanau County, Grand Traverse County, Antrim County
and Kalkaska County in Michigan
. The group is based in Traverse City.
Grand Traverse Baykeeper: The Watershed Center is a member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance
, founded by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
.
Adopt-A-Stream: This ongoing citizen based volunteer monitoring program samples aquatic insects
and documents present stream conditions in the spring and fall of each year. Volunteers are led by a trained volunteer team leader.
Healthy Beaches: Swimmers can become ill from coming into contact with pathogens associated with E. coli
, such as salmonella
and giardia
. East Bay is on the state's list of impaired waterways due to high levels of E. coli. The Healthy Beaches campaign works to reduce these pathogens and related beach advisories for Grand Traverse Bay.
Buffer Initiative: Vegetative buffers, also called riparian buffer zones, buffer strips or greenbelts, located between land and water help filter pollutants and improve water quality. Buffers absorb excessive stormwater
runoff and nutrients such as phosphorus
, a culprit behind algae blooms. The Watershed Center conducts buffer surveys of private and public lands, and educates the public about the aesthetic and water quality benefits of greenbelt gardens.
Beach Rangers: The Beach Ranger program mobilizes volunteers in response to bird die-offs from avian botulism. Bird die-offs have dramatically increased in recent years on northern Lake Michigan
. In 2007, for the first time in several years, botulism was also confirmed in bird deaths on Grand Traverse Bay north of Elk Rapids. In response to these concerns and to better inform the public about how to help manage these outbreaks along the more than 400 miles of northern Lake Michigan shoreline, the Watershed Center is leading the Grand Traverse Bay Botulism Network. The purpose of the network is to monitor beaches along northern Lake Michigan and to respond to avian botulism outbreaks. The work of the network actively supports conducting botulism research.
Stormwater Reduction: Stormwater is a type of runoff that collects on paved areas following precipitation. Runoff increases erosion, which results in more sediment flowing to Grand Traverse Bay. Excessive sediment from erosion, along with nutrients such as phosphorus from fertilizers, are the top two water quality threats to Grand Traverse Bay. Effectively managing stormwater reduces sediment
and phosphorus from reaching the Bay. It also keeps Grand Traverse Bay oligotroph
ic, meaning cold. Stormwater that runs over paved areas and land becomes warmer. Effective stormwater management reduces such thermal pollution, which is important for cold water species such as Lake Trout
. The group works very closely with the City of Traverse City, numerous townships, and scores of project partners and volunteers from myriad organizations and businesses throughout the Grand Traverse region to protect Grand Traverse Bay from stormwater pollution.
Macrophyte Bed Study: Macrophytes include rooted aquatic plants such as cladophora
and algae such as chara, both of which are on the rise in Grand Traverse Bay. Scientists believe decaying cladophora on lake bottoms is linked to avian botulism, the culprit behind thousands of bird deaths in Great Lakes in recent years. The study utilizes aerial photography and its Bay Monitor tugboat to locate macrophyte beds in Grand Traverse Bay, noting water quality, sediment, phosphorus, zebra mussels and quagga mussel
s. This study will produce hard data to help scientists ascertain the link between macrophyte bed growth, phosphorus cycling and invasive mussels.
Water Quality Monitoring: Ongoing water quality monitoring is vital to measuring the health of the bay and developing trends. The organization coordinates a variety of different monitoring projects including stream and beach E.Coli testing, water clarity monitoring in Grand Traverse Bay, and various volunteer monitoring projects.
Water Quality Database: The online, interactive regional Water Quality Database for the Grand Traverse Bay Watershed is a storehouse of available water quality data for the entire watershed. The database contains both current and historical data that has been gathered and entered by groups involved in monitoring water quality throughout the watershed. Data can be searched by parameter, location, water body, jurisdiction, or specific research document.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
advocates for clean water in Grand Traverse Bay
Grand Traverse Bay
Grand Traverse Bay is a bay of Lake Michigan formed by part of Northern Michigan. The bay is long, 10 miles wide, and up to deep in spots. It is divided into two arms by the Old Mission Peninsula...
and protects and preserves the Bay's watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
.
This environmental organization
Environmental organization
An environmental organization is an organization that seeks to protect, analyze or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation or lobby for these goals....
's work encompasses Leelanau County, Grand Traverse County, Antrim County
Antrim County, Michigan
-History:Antrim County was formed in 1863. In 1950 its population was 10,721. The county seat was originally located in Elk Rapids, but was moved to Bellaire in 1904 after 25 years of litigation.-Demographics:...
and Kalkaska County in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The group is based in Traverse City.
Programs
Watershed Protection Plan: The Plan summarizes existing water quality conditions in and around Grand Traverse Bay and makes recommendations about how to improve and protect the bay and its watershed.Grand Traverse Baykeeper: The Watershed Center is a member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance is an environmental organization founded in 1999, responding to a growing movement of organizations with the name Riverkeeper, Baykeeper, Soundkeeper, and other related "keeper" names, of which there are over 150 around the globe...
, founded by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. is an American radio host, activist, and attorney specializing in environmental law. He is the third of eleven children born to Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and is the nephew of John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy...
.
Adopt-A-Stream: This ongoing citizen based volunteer monitoring program samples aquatic insects
Aquatic insects
Aquatic insects live some portion of their life cycle in the water. They feed in the same ways as other insects. Some diving insects, such as predatory diving beetles, can hunt for food underwater where land-living insects cannot compete.-Breathing:...
and documents present stream conditions in the spring and fall of each year. Volunteers are led by a trained volunteer team leader.
Healthy Beaches: Swimmers can become ill from coming into contact with pathogens associated with E. coli
Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for product recalls...
, such as salmonella
Salmonella
Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, predominantly motile enterobacteria with diameters around 0.7 to 1.5 µm, lengths from 2 to 5 µm, and flagella which grade in all directions . They are chemoorganotrophs, obtaining their energy from oxidation and reduction...
and giardia
Giardia
Giardia is a genus of anaerobic flagellated protozoan parasites of the phylum Metamonada in the supergroup "Excavata" that colonise and reproduce in the small intestines of several vertebrates, causing giardiasis, commonly known as Beaver fever...
. East Bay is on the state's list of impaired waterways due to high levels of E. coli. The Healthy Beaches campaign works to reduce these pathogens and related beach advisories for Grand Traverse Bay.
Buffer Initiative: Vegetative buffers, also called riparian buffer zones, buffer strips or greenbelts, located between land and water help filter pollutants and improve water quality. Buffers absorb excessive stormwater
Stormwater
Stormwater is water that originates during precipitation events. It may also be used to apply to water that originates with snowmelt that enters the stormwater system...
runoff and nutrients such as phosphorus
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...
, a culprit behind algae blooms. The Watershed Center conducts buffer surveys of private and public lands, and educates the public about the aesthetic and water quality benefits of greenbelt gardens.
Beach Rangers: The Beach Ranger program mobilizes volunteers in response to bird die-offs from avian botulism. Bird die-offs have dramatically increased in recent years on northern Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
. In 2007, for the first time in several years, botulism was also confirmed in bird deaths on Grand Traverse Bay north of Elk Rapids. In response to these concerns and to better inform the public about how to help manage these outbreaks along the more than 400 miles of northern Lake Michigan shoreline, the Watershed Center is leading the Grand Traverse Bay Botulism Network. The purpose of the network is to monitor beaches along northern Lake Michigan and to respond to avian botulism outbreaks. The work of the network actively supports conducting botulism research.
Stormwater Reduction: Stormwater is a type of runoff that collects on paved areas following precipitation. Runoff increases erosion, which results in more sediment flowing to Grand Traverse Bay. Excessive sediment from erosion, along with nutrients such as phosphorus from fertilizers, are the top two water quality threats to Grand Traverse Bay. Effectively managing stormwater reduces sediment
Sediment
Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....
and phosphorus from reaching the Bay. It also keeps Grand Traverse Bay oligotroph
Oligotroph
An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments...
ic, meaning cold. Stormwater that runs over paved areas and land becomes warmer. Effective stormwater management reduces such thermal pollution, which is important for cold water species such as Lake Trout
Lake trout
Lake trout is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, lake char , touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, they can also be variously known as siscowet, paperbellies and leans...
. The group works very closely with the City of Traverse City, numerous townships, and scores of project partners and volunteers from myriad organizations and businesses throughout the Grand Traverse region to protect Grand Traverse Bay from stormwater pollution.
Macrophyte Bed Study: Macrophytes include rooted aquatic plants such as cladophora
Cladophora
Cladophora is a genus of reticulated filamentous Ulvophyceae . The genus Cladophora contains many species that are very hard to tell apart and classify, mainly because of the great variation in their appearances, which is affected by habitat, age and environmental conditions...
and algae such as chara, both of which are on the rise in Grand Traverse Bay. Scientists believe decaying cladophora on lake bottoms is linked to avian botulism, the culprit behind thousands of bird deaths in Great Lakes in recent years. The study utilizes aerial photography and its Bay Monitor tugboat to locate macrophyte beds in Grand Traverse Bay, noting water quality, sediment, phosphorus, zebra mussels and quagga mussel
Quagga mussel
The quagga mussel is a subspecies of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk.It is one of seven Dreissena species and has an average life span of 3 to 5 years....
s. This study will produce hard data to help scientists ascertain the link between macrophyte bed growth, phosphorus cycling and invasive mussels.
Water Quality Monitoring: Ongoing water quality monitoring is vital to measuring the health of the bay and developing trends. The organization coordinates a variety of different monitoring projects including stream and beach E.Coli testing, water clarity monitoring in Grand Traverse Bay, and various volunteer monitoring projects.
Water Quality Database: The online, interactive regional Water Quality Database for the Grand Traverse Bay Watershed is a storehouse of available water quality data for the entire watershed. The database contains both current and historical data that has been gathered and entered by groups involved in monitoring water quality throughout the watershed. Data can be searched by parameter, location, water body, jurisdiction, or specific research document.