Volunteers came out to the Fox Point Boat Landing on Saturday, July 14th for FWWA’s first ever Aesthetics Monitoring Bus Trip. Volunteers surveyed the waters at the boat landing, and then hopped on a bus that took them to five other monitoring sites before returning them back to De Pere. The program seeks to engage the public and has volunteers survey and provide their opinions on the aesthetics, or appearance, of the waters in the Green Bay area. The program is a collaboration between the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance (FWWA). FWWA started coordinating volunteers for the program beginning in 2016. This year, we decided to coordinate three bus trips in order to get more volunteers involved and monitoring the 12 sites found throughout Allouez, De Pere, Green Bay, and Brown County.
Background: From below the De Pere dam up to Long Tail Point in the Bay of Green Bay is the Green Bay Area of Concern, or AOC. Great Lakes rivers and harbors that have been most severely affected by pollution and habitat loss are considered “Areas of Concern,” or AOCs. Designated in 1987 as part of an international agreement between the U.S. and Canada known as the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, these geographically‐defined sites need special attention. In order to deal with these concerns, a Remedial Action Plan was written. The plan details Beneficial Use Impairments of (BUIs) impacting these waters and surrounding habitat. One of these BUIs is the aesthetics or appearance of these waters. It was determined that the aesthetics of the waters were degraded or impaired, and in order to determine if this is still a concern decades after this report was written, the public’s feedback is needed. The Aesthetics Monitoring program works to coordinate volunteers to survey the waters of the Green Bay AOC. Data from these surveys will be used to determine whether or not the aesthetics of these waters are still considered degraded.
Volunteers participating in the program receive a free lunch from Honeybaked Ham, a “Watershed Volunteer” travel cooler, all materials needed to survey the waters, and a certificate of completion. Two more bus trips are planned for 2018. After completion of these bus trips, the program will come to a close as there will be enough data for the WDNR to determine whether or not the aesthetics in the Green Bay AOC continue to be a concern.
We would love to have more volunteers take part in this program! Click the links to register for our upcoming bus trips!
This article was written by Kelly Reyer, FWWA Outreach Coordinator.
To contact, please e-mail Kelly@fwwa.org
