Minnesota
Waters Macroinvertibrate Workshop
Riverview
Park in Milaca
On Saturday September 26th
Minnesota Waters and the Mille Lacs Soil and Water Conservation District with
the help of the Onanagozie Resource and Development Council presented a
macroinvertebrate training at Riverview Park in Milaca, MN. The training is part
of a Surface Water Assessment Grant that the Mille Lacs SWCD and Isanti County
are working on to collect data that will help determine the health of the Rum
River. Sampling by Volunteer Stream Monitors is a big part of data collection
and this training taught volunteers how and why to collect tiny creatures called
macroinvertebrates from the river bottom. 
Macroinvertebrates are small but visible creatures that live on the bottom of
streams and rivers. They include insects in larval form, worms, snails, clams
and crayfish. They are not very mobile and are not able to escape poor quality
water. Some of them are very intolerant of pollution and are therefore
considered to be the “canary in the coal mine” as far as water quality goes.
MN Waters
taught 10 volunteers how to jab their “D”shaped-nets into the stream bottom to
kick up macroinvertebrates and scoop them into their nets. The samples are
dumped into dish pans and the volunteers were taught to sort similar looking
organisms into the compartments of an ice cube tray. Once the organisms had
been sorted, Courtney Kowalczak from MN Waters helped volunteers identify just
what they had in their trays. Critters were identified and counted and
volunteers were taught how to plug their numbers into a formula that would
indicate water quality based on how many of each type of organism had been
collected. More species known to be intolerant of poor water quality would
indicate good water quality while more species that are tolerant of poor water
quality would indicate possible issues with water quality.
The water
quality minded volunteers at this workshop included Victoria Hallin, Princeton
City Council member, Princeton seventh grade science teacher Eric Torkelson, Ken
Lindstrom and Dana Ranes from Onanegozie RC&D, Lynn Carter and Kristie Heintz
from the Mille Lacs SWCD, new Minnesota resident Daniel Heintz, Yigliola Malca
from the Snake River Watershed Management Group and Dave Bulf who said he was
attending because “I like to fish!”. Macroinvertibrates are an important part
of the rivers food chain and as Erica LeMoine of MN Waters pointed out, “We
become a part of this food chain.” Marian Bender, Executive Director of MN
Waters also attended and brought along her 8 year son Jason who pronounced the
workshop “Awsome!”
Minnesota
Waters is a non profit organization whose mission is to promote responsible
stewardship of our water resources by engaging citizens, local and state
policymakers, and other partners in the protection and restoration of
Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. For more information visit their website at
www.minnesotawaters.org. To become a Volunteer Stream Monitor call Lynn
Carter at the Mille Lacs SWCD at 320-983-2160
end
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