The primary goals of the Michigan TU River Stewards Program are to collect data that will help guide future conservation and restoration efforts of coldwater streams, while providing hands-on volunteer opportunities for Trout Unlimited members, and providing meaningful data to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
The Michigan TU River Stewards Program provides methods and training for monitoring in-stream temperature, stream habitat, benthic macroinvertebrates, in-stream flow, and fisheries populations. Stream monitoring is relatively easy, and the benefits are great. The data we collect provides the base we need to drive coldwater conservation in Michigan. It also helps us to prioritize restoration needs within a given stream and conduct restoration projects based in science. Prioritizing restoration needs and tackling the most important projects first ensures that we are getting the biggest bang for our conservation buck. In addition, through the River Stewards Program we can identify our highest quality coldwater streams and focus on protecting those streams from degradation. Not only is the data collected through the River Stewards Program useful to Michigan TU Chapters, much of it is also useful to the DNRE and other partner organizations.
If your chapter is not yet involved in the River Stewards Program and would like to be, please contact Kristin Thomas (kthomas@michigantu.org, (616) 460-0477) for more information.
This program is made possible through the support of the DTE Energy Foundation, Joyce Foundation, TU Embrace-A-Stream Grant program & our Michigan TU Chapters.
