Michigan Stream Team members Ralph Resnick (MDEQ) and Chris Frieburger (MDNR) collect survey data in a 2005 field exercise. - Photo by Dave Fongers, MDEQ

The Michigan Stream Team, consisting of representatives from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Calhoun Conservation District, Michigan State University (MSU), and the Service met on January 25, 2006 in East Lansing, Mich., at the Service’s East Lansing Field Office. 

The Team was formed to develop regional curves showing bankfull dimensions versus drainage area for physiographic provinces in Michigan.  The greatest item of interest at the January meeting was that the Team has received enough funding to begin fieldwork this summer to gather the data required to develop regional reference curves for Michigan, which is a short-term goal of the team.  The MDEQ has awarded the Team funding in 319 funds for the next 3 years to hire a graduate student to lead data collection efforts.  Kristine Bosley-Morse, an employee of the Calhoun Conservation District, and a graduate student at Michigan State University has been hired to lead this project.  Ms. Bosley-Morse has been working with the Team since its inception.  MSU made a strong contribution to the project by committing to purchasing a total station (surveying unit) to assist with stream surveys.  The MDNR has applied for and received a 2-year grant that will fund MDNR staff involvement, including a field crew to assist Ms. Bosley-Morse.  USGS has committed to providing gaging data and analysis to the field crews, and all of the resource agencies will be needed to complete initial site checks, to gain trespass permission from private landowners, and to assist with future training efforts.

Mr. Dave Fongers from the MDEQ announced that the Team’s website was almost completed, and was expected to be running by the end of February.  The website is now on-line, and can be accessed by going to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s home page (http://www.michigan.gov/deq), and then search “Michigan Stream Team”.  The website describes the Team, its members, its purpose and accomplishments.  The website also contains the finalized version of “Protocol for Field Surveys of Stream Morphology at Gaging Stations in Michigan”, a document that serves as procedural protocol to conduct regional reference curve field data collection which was developed by the Team in 2005. 

Regional reference curve development is important to all natural resource professionals concerned with proper river restoration.  This critical data will take the guesswork out of river restoration in Michigan, and provide restoration efforts with the information to develop successful and stable outcomes to their projects.  Alpena FRO Biologists Heather Rawlings and Susan Wells serve as Service representatives on the Team.