It's Time to Celebrate Grand Calumet River and Roxana Marsh Cleanup
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It's time to celebrate Grand Calumet River and Roxana Marsh cleanup In northwest Indiana, life may just be a little more hopeful than it used to be. The Great Lakes Legacy Act (GLLA) project to remove contaminated sediment from portions of the Grand Calumet River and adjacent Roxana Marsh is done. Unlike before the cleanup, these waterways will now likely attract birds, aquatic life, and people. “This river was lifeless,” said Cameron Davis, senior advisor on the Great Lakes to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “Today, because of this effort, you can see the Grand Cal working and fighting to come back to life, and with it, the community.” A celebration and press event in June to mark this moment brought together many play- ers and partners involved in the process. And, thanks to work done by Caitie McCoy, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) social scientist, local school children capped off their semester-long learning expe- rience about the restoration project by planting native seedlings along the marsh’s shores. “Legacy Act projects provide oppor- tunities for residents to get involved in the river restoration process and learn about local water issues,” said McCoy. “As the Grand Cal project moved for- ward we have been ensuring that this includes local students too.” McCoy and Nishaat Yunus, a fellow in the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO), worked closely with students in two northwest Indiana schools, engaging them in Bringing AIS information to Page 2 hands-on water monitoring activities and other boat ramps learning opportunities. Yellow perch diet depends Page 3 At the Hammond Academy of Science and on where they are Technology they accompanied about 80 ninth Natural lawn care at a Page 6 Continued on page 4 retailer near you Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Volunteers bring AIS information Two States Caring for One Great Lake Brian Miller, Director down to boat ramps 374 NSRC, 1101 W. Peabody Urbana, IL 61801 Investing in the stock market can be a risky venture, but investing 217-333-6444 your time to improve the environment has no uncertainty, and benefits Lisa Merrifield everyone. IISG and the Northeast Illinois Assistant Director Invasive Plant Partnership (NIIPP) are seeking volunteers to assist with Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers! Clean Boats Crew, which aims to inform boaters that they The may be accidentally transporting aquatic HELM invasive species. “I think of volunteering as an investment Irene Miles in the future—protecting and preserv- Editor ing ecosystems for future generations of Michael Peterson humans as well as native organisms,” said Cathy McGlynn, the NIIPP Writer coordinator. “I also think environmental education and outreach are es- sential to raising public awareness about not only invasive species, but Susan White also the fact that everyone's actions can have far-reaching consequences. Graphic Designer Humans are interconnected with every other organism on this planet.” Printed on Recycled Paper Last year, the program started in Lake County, Illinois and Lake County, Indiana. Volunteers talked to boaters on site at boat ramps about how to prevent the spread of AIS. Boaters can easily transport AIS unknow- IISG online: ingly in wa- ter found in iiseagrant.org bait buckets, lakesideviews.blogspot.com kayaks, ca- twitter.com/ILINSeaGrant noes, and boat facebook.com/ILINseagrant motors. Other youtube.com/iiseagrant species can get caught in boat trailers and fishing tackle and be moved Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is one of more than to new loca- 32 programs of the National Sea Grant College Program created by Congress in 1966. Sea Grant tions. is a partnership of universities, government, business, and industry that addresses marine and Great Lakes needs to enhance sustainable coastal “It’s really all about getting out to where the boaters and anglers are, economic development. Funding is provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oce- and talking with them about how their actions can make a difference,” anic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA said Sarah Zack, IISG aquatic invasive species specialist. “Our Clean Grant # NA10OAR4170068), Office of Sea Grant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Boats Crew site leaders are very good at educating people about aquatic Purdue University. The University of Illinois and invasive species, and how easy it is to stop their spread with a few Purdue University offer equal opportunities in programs and employment. simple steps.” O D ATM SPH N ER A E During the first year, volunteers talked with more than 900 people IC A N D A M E I C N O I S L T A R N A T O I I O T N A N Continued on page 7 U . E S . C D R E E P M A M RT O MENT OF C IISG-12-24 2 www.iiseagrant.org Location is key to yellow perch diet and success Whether Lake Michigan’s yellow perch survive their recent years. Invasive species, such as the round first winter may depend in part on their food source in goby have been introduced and native species, the fall. And this can depend on where they live. including yellow perch, mottled sculpin, longnose sucker, and various invertebrate prey, have declined. University of Illinois graduate student Austin Happel studied the diet of juvenile yellow perch. He found “Our objective is to describe the nearshore food web that those on the rocky structure and how this varies with location, season, western shores along and bottom substrate,” said Czesny. “We are also Illinois and Wisconsin interested in how invasive species interact with native have a healthy diet of biota, which will ultimately help us manage this unique invertebrates whereas ecosystem that is Lake Michigan,” added Czesny. perch on the sandy east Courtesy of Austin Happel side have a skimpier diet The larger results of the study are still to come, but of zooplankton. smaller aspects of the project, such as Happel’s work with yellow perch, are beginning to tell a story. For “Perch are generalists—they eat what is available,” example, Happel found that there isn't much overlap said Happel. “The rocky habitat along the western in the diet of yellow perch and round goby, but that, coast provides a better environment for invertebrates again, is location dependent. “On the west side of to thrive than the sandy eastern Michigan shores.” Lake Michigan, zooplankton is limited so the perch and gobies are more likely to both prey on inverte- Happel’s study is part of a much larger research brates.” project to document the food web in the coastal zone of Lake Michigan using a comprehensive approach. The nearshore food web study is a collaboration of Scientists at several institutions in the region are researchers at the Illinois Natural History Survey, exploring food web linkages by analyzing the diets Purdue University, State University of New York, and of a number of fish using three techniques: stomach the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Great Lakes contents, fatty acid signatures, and stable isotopes. Water Institute (through Illinois-Indiana and Wisconsin Sea Grants, and U.S. EPA Great Lakes Restoration “Each of these methods reveals a different time Initiative). frame of information about a fish’s diet,” said Happel. “Stomach contents reveal what the fish are eating at the exact moment of capture while fatty acid signatures allow us to tease apart what they have been consuming over several weeks. Stable isotopes provide a picture of an even longer time frame.” “All these approaches have unique advantages, which, when combined, provide detailed informa- tion on the nearshore food web structure,” said Sergiusz Czesny, Lake Michigan Biological Station director. Most food web studies in the past have focused on the open waters of Lake Michigan—this one is Researchers are getting ready to sample in the nearshore of Lake Michigan as designed to describe the nearshore region. There, part of a Great Lakes Regional Research Information Network research initia- the food web has undergone dramatic changes in tive. (Photo courtesy of Sergiusz Czesny) www.iiseagrant.org 3 Cleanup celebration for all ages continued from page 1 grade students from Amanda Miracle's science class- es on a field trip to the river. Students took water samples to monitor water quality in restored sites— the results were shared with EPA and GLLA project partners. The students have gone back to the river to view progress on the restoration project. They have also learned data analysis, data reporting, and how scientists use data to make project-level decisions. At the East Chicago Lighthouse Charter School, about 50 fourth grade students from Andrea Bock's science classes grew native plants, provided by EPA. These plants were brought to Roxana Marsh to put in the ground as part of the celebration. McCoy and Yunus engaged students in key concepts associated with habitats and restoration projects. The children de- signed their own Roxana Marsh habitat by construct- ing a colorful classroom mural. McCoy is working with IISG’s education team— Robin Goettel and Terri Hallesy—to package the classroom programming developed through these efforts. This programming will be ready to apply at other GLLA sites, hopefully in conjunction with Sea Grant programs in other states. Altogether, more than 600,000 cubic yards of polluted sediment were remediated from 2.5 miles of the Roxa- na Marsh and Grand Calumet River. The project’s $52 million cost was shared by U.S. EPA and the state of Indiana. But there are many players in this project— EPA GLNPO, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the U.S.