Hi First name / subscriber! Enjoy the October edition of the Muskegon Conservation District Newsletter. Below you will read about drinking water health, upcoming workshops and events at MCD and more!
If you have anything that you would be interested in reading about please contact us via email at muskegoncd@macd.org.
End of Summer Roundup
As fall arrives, the staff at MCD takes time to reflect on our work as we transition from treatment and field seasons to survey and planting seasons. From early spring until now, we have completed a variety of projects, including native restorations, dune and bank stabilization, invasive species treatments (both fee-for-service and grant-funded), food plot plantings, macroinvertebrate sampling, and numerous plantings this spring.
Many of these projects have been featured in previous newsletters, so hopefully some are familiar to you. As the treatment season wraps up, MCD staff has managed to treat thousands of acres of invasive species, such as Japanese knotweed, phragmites, and Hemlock woolly adelgid. Additionally, we have planted hundreds of acres with native seedlings, forbs, grasses, and thousands of culms of dune grass.
We have also successfully completed several large grant projects, including the removal of the Patterson County Park dam. This project involved dismantling a small dam that was in disrepair and had recently breached. Following its removal, we conducted stream bank restoration and plantings to promote the health and longevity of the Little Rio Grande Creek, where the dam once stood. MCD is proud to have contributed to this conservation effort and aims to manage similar projects in the future.
As the weather cools and the trees change color, MCD staff looks forward to expanding our native plantings and continuing restoration projects into the spring. We are also excited about the opportunity to seek out new and innovative grant-funded projects for the coming years.
Last month, MCD was notified of successful awarding of a new grant through the Fremont Area Community Foundation. This specific grant pool is a habitat based grant to improve habitat in the Muskegon River Watershed.
The grant MCD was awarded is for the improvement of threatened and endangered turtle nesting habitat in the Muskegon area. This will include the construction and monitoring of a turtle exclosure that will ensure that turtle nests are protected from nest predators such as raccoons, skunks, and opossums. In order to do this, new sandy areas will be created and surrounded with solar powered electrified poultry netting. This will ensure greater survival of eggs within these turtle nests. Monitoring of the nesting area will take place in order to further identify what species of turtle are present and how they utilize the area.
This habitat improvement will hopefully help to aid in population health while also allowing for biologists and stakeholders to better understand general numbers of threatened turtles such as wood turtles and eastern box turtles in the area.
This grant is in collaboration with the Michigan DNR, the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Muskegon County Commissioners, and the Muskegon Conservation District.
Did you know that roughly 30% of Michigan's residential water comes from private wells. The most common method for constructing residential wells within Michigan is to drill a hole commonly from 100-150 feet deep utilizing a rotary or percussion drill. These wells can occasionally be dug much deeper depending on a myriad of factors such as: topography, water table depth, etc. This hole is then lined with a steel or plastic casing with a screen at the base to filter out sediments. An electric pump (well-head) is then placed on this casing to pull water up to the surface.
If you have a private residential well, it is important to know how to determine if your drinking water has become contaminated or is at risk for being contaminated. The good news is that, drilled wells are less likely to become contaminated when compared to other forms of wells. This is due to the depth of the wells and where they are actually pulling water from. Contamination typically occurs within the first 50 feet of the surface. It is much more common to have a driven well (often referred to as a stab well) become contaminated as they do not go nearly as deep as drilled wells (typically 30-50 feet).
Common types and sources of contamination include natural sources, industry and agricultural sources, treatment centers, improperly maintained wells, and outdated plumbing. Naturally occurring contaminants exist in many sources of drinking water now, the difference is that they are much more treatable than other forms. This can include copper contamination, nitrate contamination, and phosphorous contamination. These often present as off-colored water or fowl-smelling water. Industry and agricultural can contaminate drinking water through human-made contaminants and pollutants. This may be from improper waste removal from industrial plants or nutrient runoff from agricultural facilities. Unfortunately, treatment centers can also be a source for contamination. This is due to the fact that a mistreatment or reactions can result in chemical byproducts, which can result in chemical leeching. Additionally a well maintained well is important to prevent contaminated from entering your drinking water. Wellheads with cracks may allow contaminated rainwater, bugs, and even small animals from entering your well. So frequently inspecting your well head is important to ensure the well is not damaged. If you have older plumbing within your home it is also important to ensure that your pipes are not causing contamination. This often occurs as lead contamination from lead pipes. If you are concerned with this it is important to contact a local plumber.
As a private well owner it is your responsibility to ensure that your well and drinking water is properly maintained. EGLE (Michigan Department of Environmental, Great Lakes and Energy) recommends that a part of annual maintenance of your home should be to test your well water. Additionally, if you think your drinking water may have contaminants is also a great time to get your well water tested.
It is also important to keep in mind how contaminants can spread across our roadways and yards and into our waterways. If you well is not properly maintained you may experience well contamination through stormwater. It is important to manage water holistically to ensure not only human health and safety but environmental health.
If you are interested in learning more about your residential well maintenance and how you can ensure your drinking remains contaminant free click the button below!
Information provided by Brittany Pazdan and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
For more questions reach out to Ashley Mark at MarkA@michigan.gov.
Join the Muskegon Conservation District on November 15th from noon until 9 PM for our inaugural buck pole. This event is a great places to celebrate your harvest, share stories, and enjoy a great community event. With games, prizes, food, warm drinks, and much more! Prizes will include hunting gear, cooking supplies and more! This is a family friendly event and will provide a chance for local hunters to celebrate food in their freezers and helping to maintain healthy herds of white-tailed deer in the Muskegon county area. Additionally, hunters will have the opportunity to donate their harvests in order to benefit Western Michigan Teen Challenge and Muskegon Rescue Mission.
If you would like to learn more about rules, have questions about day of information, or have interest in sponsoring this event please contact the Muskegon Conservation District office at 231-828-5097 or visit our website!
This years Water Festival was a great success! A total of 258 3rd Grade students from four Muskegon County Schools were able to attend. These students were able to learn about invasive species in Michigan waters, the use of our water, mammals in the water and much more!
With this event MCD aimed to inspire young students to pursue STEM based careers as well as increase environmental literacy!
Thank you to those who sponsored this event and as MCD looks to continue this event next year we are hoping to hear from those who would be interested in sponsoring and partnering for this event in 2025!
If you or someone you know is interested in helping our staff sort macroinvertebrates from recent sampling events make sure to put this date on your calendar! The event will take place on November 22 at 1:00 PM at the MCD office.
This event is great for those who have an interest in macroinvertebrates or who are wanting to gain more experience with identifying aquatic macroinvertebrates! Here you will use ID books to identify species and categorize them based on sample sites. This event is a great way to learn about water quality as well as what species call our streams home!
If you are interested in volunteering for this event please contact Sabrina Huizenga at sabrina.huizenga@macd.org or call 231-828-5097.
Although this event is not officially part of MiCorp, it follows several other MiCorp sampling events. If you have previously attended a MiCorp macroinvertebrate sampling event, this would be a great opportunity for you to join.
Muskegon County Begins Construction of a New Sewer Main
On October 5th, 2022 Muskegon County was awarded a $60 million state grant that would help fund the construction of a new 20-mile long sewer main that spans from Coopersville to the Muskegon County Resource Recovery Center. This new sewer main will be 30 inches in diameter and will be available for smaller towns to connect to (towns such as Ravenna and Coopersville). This sewer main is being constructed in response to the need of better sewer management and to relieve Coopersville's smaller wastewater treatment system. This will also allow for greater commercial use of the sewer main, projecting to grow the agribusiness industry within West Michigan by a substantial amount of $187 million.
This new sewer main will improve flow to the Muskegon Resource Recovery Center as it has lost significant amounts of industrial users in recent years. This will allow the MRRC to operate at a greater rate and allow agribusinesses in the surrounding area to operate at greater capacity.
Join MCD and District Forester Rod Denning for an evening of learning about Michigan's various forest pests. This is a FREE workshop but registration is still required.
As we try to plan for spring workshops, would any of the above workshops be something that you are interested in attending or learning more about? If so please click the workshop you would find most enjoyable. If not, please let MCD know what you would be more intriguing to you.
