2016 Silver Creek C.R.E.W.
Friday the 13th was a lucky day for 40 students from Bayport and Oneida High Schools, who spent the day with bugs, sondes, and drones – with fun, hands-on activities in the field to learn about watershed cleanup efforts on Silver Creek.
NEW Water, the brand of the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District, and the Oneida Nation have teamed up on the Silver Creek Pilot Project, a 4,800-acre sub-watershed, to implement best land management practices in efforts to improve area waters. This high school educational outreach component – the Silver Creek CREW (Committed to Restoring and Enhancing our Waters) project - kicked off in 2015. Oneida High School teacher Becky Nutt, and Bayport High School Bryanna Kenno selected students for this year's CREW based on an essay they wrote about our watershed.
The educational day featured a “field and drone exploration station,” led by Tony Kuchma, Wetlands Project Manager for Oneida Environmental, Health, and Safety Division, and Jeff Smudde, Watershed Programs Manager for NEW Water, demonstrated how G.I.S. and drone technology are being used to track the progress of the project and its installation practices.
The “invertebrate communities” station was led by Jim Snitgen, the Water Resources Supervisor, and Melis Arik, Water Resources Specialist, for the Oneida Nation, and involved pulling different invertebrates from the water, and learning about how different species can indicate the health of a stream. The “Water Quality Assessment Station” was led by Erin Wilcox, Water Resource Specialist for NEW Water. Erin also manages the Aquatic Monitoring Program, one of the largest monitoring datasets on the Great Lakes. The station featured water quality monitoring, and measurements taken with a sonde, which collect data including dissolved oxygen levels, temperature, and conductivity.