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Water Quality Monitoring Corner Greetings to all those concerned about the future health of our great and precious resources. It’s vital that we continue to expend energy to educate people about the importance of clean water. Our water resources continue to be threatened on many fronts. The Kickapoo Citizen Water Monitors (KCWM) will continue to be a key group in our back yard to monitor the health of our beloved Watershed. We continue to ask for your support and involvement. Our March meeting was well attended as we shifted into gear for another season of monitoring. Cindy Koperski, a DNR Water Biologist from La Crosse, provided us with an informative presentation of data collected within the Watershed from temperature loggers located on several tributaries as well as the main branch of the Kickapoo River. We were interested in comparing previous year temperatures to the 2003 drought conditions. Some of this data was collected by KCWM members, making the presentation of greater interest to their particular effort. In the discussion that followed, we agreed that we are blessed to have an abundance of ground water discharge from springs and seeps within the Watershed, which had significant neutralizing effects on last year’s extreme air temperatures and lack of rainfall. An equipment check was provided to members for updating their “buckets” for the remainder of the monitoring season. Some members expanded their protocol to include nitrite and nitrate testing. There was also discussion on equipment upgrading and expanding the monitoring protocol to include coliform bacteria testing on selected sites of the main branch of the Kickapoo River. The KCWM is pleased to see the creation of two new water monitoring groups, one to the north on the Black River and also a new group in Crawford County headed up by Russ Hagen, the County Conservationist. We look forward to working with both groups. If you have an interest in water quality or in monitoring within the Kickapoo Watershed, join us at one of our upcoming events. KCWM will be hosting the following two-hour bio-indexing and water monitoring workshops:
The UW-Extension service will be offering a complete training course for water monitors.
These events are free and open to the public and they offer a great opportunity to learn about area streams and to meet other stream enthusiasts.
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Contact Us!Valley Stewardship Network
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