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Great Lakes Regional Water Program
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Monthly Newsletter Oct/Nov 2012
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| Dear Great Lakes Regional Water Program Friends and Colleagues,
November brings the first touches of winter to the Upper Midwest. Frost is a regular morning visitor and for most of us, the field season has drawn to a close. It's a time for us to be thankful for the successes of 2012 and to look ahead to 2013. I will first highlight a few recent accomplishments, completed in partnership with USEPA. I'll then share a few new initiatives that are now underway. Our website will be updated with information on all of our 2013 initiatives within the next few weeks. In the meantime, please download our summary sheet for the full list.
New Resources for Water Management
- A website based at Purdue University has been developed as a central location for regional resources related to conservation drainage.
- The University of Illinois has developed a short publication titled Designing and Constructing Bioreactors to Reduce Nitrate Loss from Subsurface Drains. The information is drawn from research conducted over many years by Richard Cooke at the University of Illinois, and is available for download here as well as from the Conservation Drainage Website described above.
- Our Social Indicators initiative continues to train people to effectively use social information in watershed management. At a webinar for NRCS staff held in September 2011, 90% of respondents (43/48) agreed or strongly agreed that the subject is important to their work and 92% (44/48) agreed or strongly agreed that attending the webinar was worth their time. 79% (38/48) said they would like to learn more about these issues. One respondent commented, "A much needed topic in NRCS - we need to put more effort on the social side of results and less on the administrative 'bean counting' side. People are the key to conservation.
In addition, hands-on training exercises were developed for participants to use the Social Indicators Data Management and Analysis system (SIDMA) for manipulating and analyzing data, and instructional video clips for operating SIDMA. The ten-part instructional series can be viewed through the SIDMA website (click on the Help page). Land-grant universities, USEPA Region 5, and state water resource management agencies provided critical funding and expertise for this initiative.
2013 Funded Initiatives
The Great Lakes Regional Water Program, through a grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, has funded nine new multi-state initiatives this year. We'll introduce two this month, and continue with others next month.
- First, the Conservation Professional Training Program has launched a new "Improving Soil Health" initiative. This initiative will feature development of a series of courses highlighting practices and tools that will improve soil productivity, carbon content, water storage, and nutrient efficiency.
- Second, a new initiative will develop a set of Core Competencies for watershed planning and implementation and will create three new training modules for watershed professionals: "Working with Farmers and Understanding Agriculture", "Organizing Volunteers to Engage in Stream and Lake Monitoring," and "Using Social Indicators to Improve Education and Outreach for Watershed Projects".
I hope you all have a great month.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Power, Co-Director, Great Lakes Regional Water Program
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| *Featured Initiative* |
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Changing Horse Manure Waste Streams
Funded by GLRWP
Between 2002 and 2007, there was a 33 percent increase in the number of horses in Illinois and an 18 percent increase in the number of horses in Wisconsin, according to the Census of Agriculture (79,481 in IL in 2007 and 120,004 in WI in 2007). Since 2002, the Bi-State Equine group of University of Illinois Extension and University of Wisconsin Extension staff has offered over 30 educational programs/field days on equine issues, resulting in a mailing list of over 1,000 horse owners. Outreach included horse manure management workshops, and booths at horse events and fairs. Program evaluations and focus groups rank manure management and composting as a top priority.
Visit the initiative webpage or download the fact sheet to find out how team members are engaging key stakeholders through in-person demonstrations and developed training materials.
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| State of the River |
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New Report on Health of Mississippi
Our colleagues in the Mississippi River watershed recently released a summary report on the health of the iconic river. The project, a collaborative effort between the Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) and the National Parks Service (NPS), highlights 13 key health indicators related to flow, recreation and ecological impacts. Presented via a new website, an interactive report and powerful infographics, the findings are easy to understand and appeal to the scientific community and the general public alike. GLRWP's very own Faye Sleeper, University of Minnesota Water Resources Center, lent her expertise as a member of the project's advisory team.
Project Website
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| *Online Now* The Clean Water Act, Wetlands & Stream Alteration: An Introduction | | | Ohio Watershed Network Webinar Series
Presenter: Merritt Frey is River Network's Habitat Program Director, and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Merritt brings fifteen years of Clean Water Act experience on the federal and state levels to her position, with a focus on water quality standards, 401 water quality certification, pollution control permits, habitat restoration, drinking source water protection, and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs).
This webinar provides introductory-level information about the Clean Water Act's wetland and stream alteration permit program, also known as Section 404. If you are concerned about development and other alteration activities affecting wetlands, streams or lakes in your area, you need to be familiar with Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which regulates dredging and filling of wetlands and streams. This webinar covers when a 404 permit is required, what the permit requires, and how you can influence the permitting process. Ms. Frey also briefly reviews the state's role in 404 permitting (401 water quality certification) and how you can engage in that process. Resources for learning more about the Act's 404 program and Ohio's related programs are provided at the end of the webinar.
Webinar Link |
| In the News #1 | |
USGS Sampling Water for Nutrients, Sediment, and Pesticides in Hurricane Sandy's Aftermath
From USGS.gov
As recovery efforts for those impacted by Hurricane Sandy continue, U.S. Geological Survey crews are sampling water for nutrients, sediment, and pesticides to document water quality in areas affected by the hurricane. This sampling effort is part of the federal government's broad efforts to ensure public health and to support the state, tribal, and local response to the storm.
"We tend to think of events like Sandy in terms of the ephemeral effect of the wind, rain, waves, and even snow as it swept through our communities, but in fact this superstorm can have a longer-term effect in the large pulse of sediment and associated pollutants swept into our waterways," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "It is particularly important to quantify the input of this one unusual event before concluding that certain efforts to reduce pollutant run-off from year to year have or have not been effective."
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| In the News #2 | | |
What's up (or not) with Great Lakes water levels?
by Steve Stewart, Michigan State University Extension
Some of the Great Lakes are expected to reach all-time low water levels this winter. Why do Great Lakes water levels change? We look at short-term lake level changes in the first of a two part series.
Some Michigan residents keep track of the Great Lakes water levels by eyeballing them - keeping an eye on the lakes over time relative to coastal landmarks. Others keep track more analytically by looking at the Monthly Bulletin of Great Lakes Water Levels, produced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Whatever the case, Great Lakes water levels do change, whether over the course of a few days, a month, a year, or many years. The challenge is trying to predict some of those changes. |
| In the News #3 | | |
Project H2O: Threats to our lakes and rivers
By Jay Olstad, Kare11.com
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, we pride ourselves on our water, but experts increasingly believe that water is in desperate need of our help.
"As a Minnesotan you want to be proud of your natural resources and your water resources, but in fact 40 percent of our lakes and rivers are out of compliance with federal standards," said Professor Deb Swackhamer.
Swackhamer teaches environmental chemistry at the University of Minnesota and is the co-director of the Water Resource Center. She says getting people to pay attention to the threats facing our water ways can be difficult.
"People do take water for granted. I think it's one of our biggest challenges," she said.
Click here for full article.
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| In the News #4 | | |
Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
From EPA.gov
The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement addresses critical environmental health issues in the Great Lakes region and is a model of binational cooperation to protect water quality. The Agreement was initially signed in 1972 and was last updated in 1987.
On Sept. 7, 2012, Canada and the United States amended the Agreement. The updated Agreement facilitates United States and Canadian action on threats to Great Lakes water quality and includes measures to prevent ecological harm. New provisions address the nearshore environment, aquatic invasive species, habitat degradation, and the effects of climate change. It also supports continued work on existing threats to people's health and the environment in the Great Lakes basin such as harmful algae, toxic chemicals, and discharges from vessels...
Click here for full article.
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| Future Newsletters | | |
Tell Us About Your Projects
Your contributions have placed the Great Lakes Region at the forefront of national and international water research, outreach and conservation. We would love to know about any new projects, grants or multi-state efforts you are leading or participating in. If you have ideas for e-newsletter content, please share with the GLRWP marketing specialist, John Kriva. You can contact him at john.kriva@uwex.edu.
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About Us
The Great Lakes Regional Water Program (GLRWP) is a partnership among the Land Grant universities in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and the NIFA National Water Program. The overarching goal of the GLRWP is to maintain and protect natural environmental systems for agriculture, human health, recreation, and economic benefit through regional leadership and coordination of research, education, and extension/outreach efforts within Great Lakes and North Central Region states.
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