Stream Health Evaluation Program volunteers conduct water quality monitoring in Rice Creek.

Photo: SHEP 2006

Since 2006, FMR has coordinated the Stream Health Evaluation Program (SHEP) in the Rice Creek Watershed District. After our first two seasons, SHEP is a successful volunteer stream monitoring program in Minnesota.

Modeled after our successful Wetland Health Evaluation Program (WHEP), SHEP was designed in partnership with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Minnesota Waters. SHEP uses trained volunteers to evaluate the biological health of streams by sampling benthic macroinvertebrates — small stream-dwelling bugs.

Why bugs?

In general, benthic macroinvertebrates (benthic: “bottom dwelling [living below the water surface on the substrate]”; macro: “visible to the naked eye”; invertebrate: “animal lacking a backbone”) are a collection of insects and crustaceans such as stoneflies, midges, snails, and crayfish. Interestingly enough, these organisms are commonly monitored to help us evaluate the water quality of our surface waters. Simply stated, they serve as tiny, living water quality indicators.

Macroinvertebrates serve as good indicators of overall stream health for several reasons:

• They are relatively common and easy to collect.
• They occupy several trophic levels within a lake or stream.
• Some of them have long life cycles of a year or more and are exposed to environmental changes throughout their lifespan.
• They cannot move to avoid poor water quality conditions and are therefore susceptible to pollution over longer periods of time.

In a nutshell, different macroinvertebrates have different reactions to pollution. Some are very tolerant and can live in any water conditions, but others are very sensitive and can only survive in good water quality conditions. As a result, the presence or absence of macroinvertebrates can effectively illustrate the conditions of our local streams, rivers, and lakes.

SHEP 2007

Back at the lab, Stream Health Evaluation Program volunteers identify and record their stream findings.

Photo: SHEP 2007

This past season, 26 adult volunteers from across the watershed and surrounding communities monitored six sites along Hardwood Creek, Clearwater Creek, Rice Creek and Locke Lake. Volunteers formed three teams led by team leaders who help coordinate SHEP activities.

Our 2007 SHEP teams

Hardwood Creek & Clearwater Creek monitoring team

Team leader: Gary Averbeck

Team members: Jim Bukowski, Mike Zelenak, Tere O’Connell, Wayne LeBlanc, Catherine Nicholson, Wendy Barron, Barbara Bor

Rice Creek monitoring team

Team leaders: Gwen & Frank Neumann

Team members: Bob Bartlett, Don Vegoe, Glenn Fuchs, Julie Glanton, Ralph Butkowski, Sarah Sevcik, Amanda Baribeau

Locke Lake monitoring team

Team leader: Cathi Lyman-Onkka

Team members: Ed Doberstein, Bill Radmer, Marilyn Radmer, Analiese Miller, Ted McCaslin, Cheryl Boyes, Tony Andrea, Susan Young

Volunteers receive extensive trainings on the MPCA’s field and laboratory monitoring protocols. Our Field Training Session (25 August 2007) and Lab Identification Training Sessions (10 and 20 October 2007) ensured that SHEPers performed scientifically valid sampling that provides useful data for watershed administrators and local communities.

How good is the data? Well, our volunteers scored an accuracy rating of 95.6% this year — great results! These results not only show that volunteers can produce reliable, scientifically accurate data, but that the data collected can be used to inform water resource management decisions throughout the watershed!

Congratulations to our 2007 SHEP volunteers!

2007 SHEP volunteers. Rather than saying “Cheese” for this photo, they all said “benthic macroinvertebrates.”

Photo: SHEP 2007

Watershed relationships

As important as it is for SHEPers to produce great data, the program also impacts our community in other positive ways. SHEP brings volunteer monitors together with local officials and decision-makers.

These relationships allow SHEP volunteers to better understand how local decisions impact water quality and stream health, while at the same time reminding local decision makers of the importance of water quality.

To volunteer or learn more

To learn more about SHEP, contact FMR’s watershed program director Trevor Russell at 651-222-2193 x18 or through our web form.

Read more about volunteering for SHEP at our SHEP volunteering page. To volunteer, contact FMR’s volunteer coordinator sue rich with your name, address, e-mail address and day and evening phone numbers at 651-222-2193 x14 or through our contact form (please select the category “volunteering” rather than “general inquiries”).