STREAM SURVEY

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Zach Dutton, left, and Carter Johns, both of Traverse City, collect samples from Hines Creek in Elmwood Township as about a dozen students in a freshwater ecology class at Western Michigan University - Traverse City survey streams around Leelanau County in partnership with the Leelanau Conservancy on Tuesday, collecting macroinvertabrates while learning techniques used by professionals such as the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. "Invertebrates are the nest single thing we can work with to assess water quality," said Steve Kohler, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, who was leading the students. The class is part of the school's Freshwater Science and Sustainability bachelor of science program, which began in 2014 and currently has over 50 students.

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