What do you know about hazardous waste?: Trout Unlimited

Trout Unlimited Win-Cres Chapter has been around since June 1977. It is one of many chapters made up of community members and devout fishermen to "protect and conserve the Southeast Minnesota trout streams." Since this important trout fishery is located in the Driftless Area and is flourishing, it is a regional treasure. Numerous trout improvement projects, clean up days, and "take a kid fishing" days have been successful community building opportunities as well as improving this valuable resource. I'm going to focus on the long stream called Garvin Brook near Stockton, MN which includes populations of brook and brown trout.

To see the Garvin Brook Project Outline click HERE. On the right side of the screen is a Google Earth map download for you to see the project area.

A GIS map made by Heidi Breid, a Geoscience major at WSU depicting the biodiversity and land management in the watershed.

This summer, Trout Unlimited along with students from the Water Resource Center, will begin surveying this 6,100 ft stream. This survey will focus on the geomorphology of streambed instability and with the help of a monitoring device they will be able to measure discharge. These surveys will be necessary to know how the stream is influenced and what the best restoration method would be. The end result will include a longitudinal cross section as well as a plethora of data to determine this.

Example of Longitudinal Profile taken from Rosgen, David L., 1994, A Classification of Natural Rivers: Catena, v. 22, p. 169-199.

Many things and events influence the flow and health of a stream. I can think of quite a few including:

Large Woody Debris

http://ohiodnr.com/Portals/7/pubs/fs_st/stfs21.pdf

Many do not know this, but logs that have fallen into a streambed is not necessarily a bad thing. Actually, it is a very good thing in many cases. According to the Ohio Stream Management Guide, large woody debris (LWD) is essential for food and shelter for macroinvertebrates, aka: insects. As the tree decays it gives of nutrients and encourages biodiversity. In order for a stream to remain healthy, it's ecosystem benefits with a variety of plant and animals species and available habitats. Fallen trees provide not only shelter to hide from predators, but also a resting place with a slower discharge. Another thing I learned from this paper as well as my professor, Dr. Dogwiler in Advanced Geomorphology, is that logs also change flow patterns and increases diversity in the streambed. These may include more pools, riffles, meanders, erosion, deposition, etc. (definitions: HERE). This variability creates a more diverse habitat for the many organisms that live in the stream. In the case of LWDs, they aren't useful in every situation, but rather when streams have a low gradient.

www.reuters.com

Also, for those of you who were not here in 2007 when Winona County got that big flood, Garvin Brook was affected in a major way. Check out Historical Flood Event. This major event had a huge impact on the geomorphology of the stream and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) is sponsoring a project to figure out the best management and restoration practices need to be in place for the continuation of a healthy habitat for wildlife.

You might be asking, "how does this all relate to hazardous waste?"

Well, I haven't mentioned much in terms of surface runoff from agriculture and even Garvin Brook here in Winona, MN encounters pollutants. After the 2007 flood, several invasive species were introduced to the watershed and have threatened the native species. These include Garlic Mustard, Wild Parsnip, and Buckthorn. Eventually, this recent Garvin Brook project will help remove the invasive plant species from this heavily disturbed area.

Taken from my power point for the Garvin Brook Watershed Characterization.

Since this area is 67% cropland, agricultural runoff is also serious issue.

Taken from my power point for my research project.

The main pollution sources in this area come from:

Nitrogen fertilizers
Animal operations (mostly dairy farming)
Pesticides

Nitrate pollution can come from barnyards and/or feedlots as well as misuse of fertilizer on lawns that are too close to shallow aquifers. One of the best ways to combat this is education. There is an important point where adding too much fertilizer can be more harmful than helpful and education can help fertilizer users to know about this distinction and gain a greater yield.

Other main pollutants include:

Now WAIT a minute here...sediments are considered pollution?
Yep. Too much sediment transport can cause a number of problems including the difficulty for fish and other animals to see food, prevents the sun from reaching plants located underwater, it can clog fish gills and lower growth rates as well as reduce resistance to disease, it can also alter the flow and depth of a stream. The EPA has labeled sediment pollution as one of the most common pollutants in rivers, streams, lakes, etc. and it causes $16 billion in environmental damage every year. Sediments can also carry many nutrients and create conditions of eutrophication, which occurs in the Gulf of Mexico in the form of hypoxic zones. For more read: Sediment Pollution.

Why the sudden interest in trout and Garvin Brook?

I have an internship this summer with Winona State's Water Resource Center who is partnering with Trout Unlimited and the MN DNR this summer to survey Garvin Brook and monitor things such as pH, temperature, velocity, etc. It is a pretty cool process and I have been blessed to have the opportunity to see how the monitoring system works, how the data is collected and processed, and to have been involved with the installation process (pictures below). As I am also a senior at Winona State University, I will use this internship to also fulfill my research requirement. I have made the following examples of how much we will need to physically survey and record in the following photos.