Adopt-A-Stream

Counting bugs is FUN!

Adopt-A-Stream is a fun, easy, hands-on way to help improve water quality in the Grand Traverse Bay watershed. The Watershed Center is taking the former Stream Search program to a new level thanks to a generous grant from the Alabaster Fund. The watershed spans nearly 1,000 square miles, with shoreline stretching from the tip of the Leelanau peninsula to Norwood in Antrim County. It takes all of us to protect and preserve our watershed: individuals, schools, non-profits, governments and businesses.Adopt-A-Stream is perfect for families, schools, neighborhood associations, scouting troops, land conservancies, service organizations, realtors, riparian landowners, developers, non-profits, local governments—just about anyone who cares about the deep link between the Grand Traverse Bay region’s water quality and our quality of life.

And all it takes is a couple hours twice a year!

Here’s How it Works

Here’s What You Do:

Choose your favorite stream in the Grand Traverse Bay Watershed to monitor; it can even be in your own backyard.
Assemble a monitoring team of at least four individuals. For example, it could be a child’s classroom, a group of coworkers or a family.
Pledge to monitor your stream once during June and October for three years.
Pay an annual fee of $300, which covers checking out really cool equipment from the Watershed Center, such as waders, nets, trays and jars. If that’s too much for your budget, we can match you with a business or organization sponsor.
Designate a team leader, who will receive training from the Watershed Center for sampling benthic macroinvertebrates. That’s fancy scientific terminology for “aquatic insects.” Team leaders will learn to collect, sort and identify aquatic insects; the type and number of aquatic insects present in a stream signify that stream’s health. The team leader will also learn how to complete the survey sheet so testing results can be entered into a statewide database.

Here’s What You Get:

Four team t-shirts; additional t-shirts are only $10 each
Recognition in the Watershed Center web site and newsletter
Fun, hands-on, place-based education for kids
Pride of ownership in the Grand Traverse Bay region’s water quality and quality of life

Find Your Stream and a Team!

Spring sampling period: any day during the first two weeks of June
Fall sampling period: any day during the first two weeks of October
Team leader training: immediately prior to sampling periods

To join the hands-on fun, contact Ellen Kohler at 231.935.1514 or ekohler@gtbay.org.

Become an Adopt-A-Stream Program Sponsor!

Businesses, organizations and individuals can become Adopt-A-Stream Program Sponsors for an annual fee of $500 for a minimum of three years. In addition to the above, you receive: