Author: Heidi Jeter

By Jerry Poling, UW-Stout

Gilbert Creek in Dunn County slips through marshland and oak savanna between chest-high grasses and flowering plants. It can be hard to find and reach during the glory of midsummer.

Yet, one section of the slender creek — one of more than 12,000 rivers and streams in the state — was busy on a recent day as University of Wisconsin-Stout professors, UW-Stout students and high school students from Wisconsin paid a visit and gave it some special attention.

Thanks to two Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin grants, the group parted the grasses to find the stream, waded in, employed special testing equipment and collected data at the Gilbert Creek Fisheries and Wildlife Area.

One of the grants is the Red Cedar Basin Monitoring Program, nearly $72,000 UW-Stout received earlier this year to do work like at Gilbert Creek, where students checked for macroinvertebrates, measured for water clarity and volume, tested for ammonia and more.

The second FCW grant included professors and students from UW-Stout guiding six high school students for the day. The high school students were taking part in a weeklong program called Freshwater Science Field Experience in Western Wisconsin: The First Step in Developing a Skilled Workforce. Led by UW-Eau Claire, it included water-focused days at UW-Stout, UW-River Falls and UW-Oshkosh.

“This will help the high school students build awareness of the potential careers in this field and develop some skillsets,” said UW-Stout Associate Professor Keith Gilland, who teaches in the environmental science program.

The section of Gilbert Creek that the group tested was seven miles west of Menomonie on Highway 29, near Highway Q. That section previously had been restored; the new data will help show how well the restoration is holding up, Gilland said.

Gilland and other professors lead similar water testing in a general education biology course at UW-Stout. The data goes into a state database, which helps determine which bodies of water are most in need of attention and state funding. Also facilitating the project for UW-Stout was Professor Amanda Little.

The data also will be used to help develop a new 10-year plan for managing the Red Cedar River watershed, Gilland said.

Gilbert Creek flows into the Red Cedar River at Menomonie.

Red Cedar Basin Monitoring Program

The UW-Stout students working this summer and fall with the Red Cedar Basin Monitoring Program are Kal Breeden, of Lakeville, Minn., environmental science; Dylan Kostuch, of Amherst, applied science; and Britney Serafina, of Baldwin, environmental science.

They’ve also collected data from Galloway Creek and Wilson Creek in Menomonie, the Hay River and lakes Menomin and Tainter, as well as aerial imagery from previously restored sites and other sites with water quality issues where land use practices may be a factor.

“I’ve done some of this in class, but this experience has really solidified how this works and given me a better perspective of what I can do with my major,” said Serafina, who is majoring in environmental science after switching majors twice.

“This is one thing I’m thoroughly passionate about. I love the program. We don’t just sit in the classroom, but we get to go out in the field and do it,” she added.

Her long-term goal is to own a hydroponic farm where she can mass produce crops sustainably and not harm the soil or the environment.

High school grant program

Hometowns of the high school students who participated included Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, Mauston and Greendale. They receive college and high school credits for participating.

“I’ve learned a lot more about stream flow and the structure of the stream, how the material on the bottom can help determine the health of the stream,” said Martin Wolf, from Mauston, who hopes to major in college in freshwater science, biology or a related major.

“I like this program a lot. It’s nice for students who love to do something with a lot of hands-on work,” Wolf said. “This is an awesome course for me.”

Students determined the volume of water at Gilbert Creek by measuring the width and depth of the creek and then the rate of flow at various points across the channel.

The presence of certain types of bugs in the stream can be an indicator of water quality and clarity, said Aaron Walczak, a teacher at Elk Mound High School who was helping direct the weeklong program.

When students were checking for bugs, UW-Stout Assistant Professor Nicole Hayes, biology, who guided half of the high school students during testing, wondered if they had found anything larger than one micron after they dipped a net into the stream.

Insect life helps support Gilbert Creek’s trout population.

Water clarity was determined by students when they filled a clear tube with creek water, then recorded where on the tube they could see a disk at the bottom.

When the creek area was restored, native grasses and sedges were planted to provide cover and nesting habitat for wildlife. The plants’ strong root systems reduce bank erosion and filter out pollutants. Flowering plants like goldenrods, bee balm and native shrubs like dogwoods and gooseberries have joined the herbaceous vegetation mix, Gilland said.

The high school students’ other experiences included testing on Lake Michigan during their day in Oshkosh and at Little Niagara Creek in Eau Claire.

In March, UW-Stout received $306,108 to lead eight projects for the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin this year. A total of 42 projects were funded at 13 UW System campuses.

UW-Stout is Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, with a focus on applied learning, collaboration with business and industry, and career outcomes.

Students from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and other UW System schools spent the summer on Lake Michigan cleaning up trash in the water and along the shorelines with a new trash skimmer boat and remote controlled drone purchased with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The large project also involves the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin and collaboration with the Council of the Great Lakes Region National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine debris project as well as public health, soil and water, nonprofits and the UW System.

Student Mason Kobilic says the work will help researchers access how much trash there is at various locations and the water samples collected will aid in microplastics research. Kobilic says he wanted to get hands-on experience through an internship so he could see what a career path could look like.

“It’s been great. We get to see the lab work and then we get to see the hands-on field work part of it, so we get to see the whole process, which is really cool,” he says.

He shares his experience in this a great video produced by the UW Oshkosh team.

Trash collectors: UW students help clean up Wisconsin waters

By Abbey Goers, UW-Stout

Eleven students from universities across the nation conducted research this summer to understand and improve the health of the Red Cedar watershed, which is affected by eutrophication – phosphorus and nitrogen pollution, causing blue-green algae blooms and dissolved oxygen levels.

UW-Stout professors led the LAKES REU students in their research across anthropology, psychology, biology and engineering disciplines. The LAKES students and mentors presented their research to community members during an open house in August.

LAKES student Abby Cullen is an environmental science senior at UW-Stout and Menomonie community member.

“The issues facing Lake Menomin have caught my attention and curiosity. I am mainly interested in the effects agriculture, from conventional to regenerative, has on land, water and wildlife,” Cullen said. “I am particularly interested in entomology and pollinator ecology, both in manmade landscapes and natural landscapes.”

She has studied why farmers do or do not implement certain management practices, such as no-till and cover crops, and sifted through data to explore land management practices and how they affect soil and nutrient runoff.

“My research experience has been very eye-opening. Working with qualitative data is very different from quantitative data, and it has been a great, new experience for me,” Cullen said.

The Red Cedar watershed is nearly 1,900 square miles and includes parts of Barron, Burnett, Chippewa, Dunn, Pierce, Polk, Rusk, Sawyer, St. Croix and Washburn counties. It features approximately 40,000 acres of open water and approximately 4,900 miles of rivers and streams.

UW-Madison environmental science senior Laura Flucke agrees and enjoys collaborating with students across various fields.

“LAKES allows me to gain interdisciplinary problem-solving skills that will improve the way I understand and address problems in the future. I have received valuable insight into how scientific research is conducted, as well as improved analytical skills, which I can use regardless of career,” Flucke said.

Flucke, of Overland Park, Kan., is also studying cartography and geographic information systems. Her interests are centered around water quality and freshwater ecosystems, particularly relating to nutrient pollution and harmful algal blooms, she said.

Her LAKES research focuses on the nutrient runoff from croplands that impacts the quality of the watershed.

“Using GIS, I have identified croplands that are more prone to nutrient runoff, due to variables such as slope of the land. Conversion of these croplands to pasture could reduce nutrient runoff in areas that would make the greatest impact,” Flucke said.

Cullen hopes that open house attendees will understand the complexities of eutrophication and the large-scale, community effort it will take to remediate nutrient pollution in Lake Menomin.

While she sees flaws in the current agricultural system, from an ecological and human perspective, she believes the general public often blames agriculture alone.

“Although it plays a part, there are many factors that affect eutrophication, including the geomorphic features of the watershed, lawn fertilization and leaking septic tanks,” Cullen said. “There is no simple solution. If we want to see real change in the agricultural system today, there needs to be increased assistance and funding for farmers across the board. There are changes that can be made that benefit farmers, the land and the watershed.”

Cullen will graduate in December and is applying to graduate school and exploring job options. She plans to earn her graduate degree in entomology and study pollinator ecology. She feels that the undergraduate research experience is valuable for her future endeavors.

LAKES REU 2022 students are from universities across nine states. The program was founded at UW-Stout in 2014. It is funded by the National Science Foundation and by a recent $29,382 grant from the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin to provide hands-on training to undergraduates.