A joint project between several area partners is being held up as a national model on how to improve watershed water quality.
Saginaw Valley State University and Delta College students and faculty have been working together on the Saginaw Bay Watershed, particularly the water quality on the Kawkawlin River Watershed, as a service learning project, since 2011.
"This is a collaborative project between Delta College and SVSU, with a ton of community support and partners," says Jacob Vanhouten, associate professor of biology at
Delta College. "It's a real team effort and a great learning experience for students because they see their work having a positive impact on our local environment. They're not just in the lab doing mock water tests. It's hands-on learning on a serious project."
This week at the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement Symposium in Washington, D.C., that project was cited as an example for other partnerships to follow, both in the Great Lakes area and nationwide. Its goal is to combine field, classroom, teaching, lab and community-based research to assess methods to restore the Kawkawlin River, in a way that's able to be copied in the rest of the Saginaw Bay Watershed.
Other partners in the project are the Bay and Saginaw Area Storm Water authorities, the Bay County Health Department, the Kawkawlin River Watershed Property Owners Association and the Midland Soil Conservation District, as well as the Great Lakes Innovative Stewardship Through Education Network, an eight-state environmental consortium.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Jacob Vanhouten, Delta College
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