The Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve received news that their grant proposal to initiate a volunteer stream monitoring program for the Salmon-Trout River was approved for funding through a MiCorps program. The proposal outlined work that YDWP will do to set up a monitoring program that is easy for volunteers to participate in and collect useful information about stream health. The project is funded for 2 years but will continue beyond the grant duration as a solely volunteer program. Eight sites on the Salmon-Trout were selected for monitoring and will include macro-invertebrate and habitat surveys, as well as basic water quality measurements.

Micorps (Michigan Clean Water Corps) is a network of volunteer monitoring programs in Michigan. It was created through Michigan Executive Order #2003-15 to assist the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in collecting and sharing water quality data for use in water resources management and protection programs. More information about MiCorps is available at http://www.micorps.net/. YDWP has worked with MiCorps for many years, including receipt of funds to start a similar volunteer monitoring program on the Yellow Dog River in 2003. The Yellow Dog River Volunteer Stream Monitoring program continues to be administered by YDWP today and is one of the longest running programs in the state. Volunteer monitoring for the Yellow Dog River will continue this year at each of the 20 established sites in June as well as October.

Anyone interested in volunteering for stream monitoring on either the Yellow Dog or Salmon-Trout River can email us at ydwp@yellowdogwatershed.org or call our office at 906-345-9223. No experience necessary.