March Online Meeting

Presenter - Paul Justen
President, Fallen Timbers Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Paul will be talking about how our chapter will be getting involved with stream quality measuring in Northwest Ohio.



The Ohio Scenic River program has been around since 1968, it has been in place longer than our National Scenic Rivers Act and Clean Water Act. Established to bring attention to Ohio rivers and streams loss of biodiversity due to pollution. Ohio has 15 rivers designated as scenic, here in northwest Ohio this includes the Maumee and Sandusky River. The presence or absence of certain macroinvertebrates (you may just think of them as water bugs) in a river or stream can be good indicators of a systems health and well being. While some macroinvertebrates are highly resistant to pollution others are not at all, and by sampling spots along these rivers we are able to assign a number score that determines the condition of the river.

This next part is where you come in.

Along the Sandusky and Maumee Rivers there are a total of 15 monitoring sites that must surveyed at least 3 times a year (Spring, Summer, and Fall). Through volunteer training you can become a volunteer Stream Quality Monitor (SQM) and help monitor and improve river quality here in NW Ohio. Without your help gathering this data across the state on so many sites would not be possible. 

There is no charge for this presentation. It is free and open to the public.