| "Our message is, protecting our waters requires individual responsibility and understanding." | |
| Richard Axler, Natural Resources Research Institute |
|
Getting homeowners to understand that what comes off their lawns impacts coastal waters, and inspiring them to do simple things that will improve water quality, are goals of many coastal resource managers. An award-winning website that uses real-time stream monitoring data to paint a picture of what's happening in the Lake Superior watershed is helping Minnesota managers address these goals.
"Everybody is nuts about fishing and the outdoors up here," says Richard Axler, senior research associate for the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota at Duluth. While people enjoy the resources, "overwhelmingly, they don't know what a watershed is or that they live in a watershed, and many don't understand that if they blow their leaves and winter sand into the street, it goes right into the creeks" and ultimately Lake Superior.
Axler adds, "Our message is, protecting our waters requires individual responsibility and understanding."
The interactive website, www.lakesuperiorstreams.org, provides real-time water quality data from regional streams and incorporates the data into community information, classroom curricula, and case studies. A site design toolkit for reducing stormwater impacts is geared toward a broad audience that includes contractors, developers, and local government decision makers.
The website doesn't just present the data, notes Jesse Schomberg, coastal communities extension educator with the Minnesota Sea Grant College Program. "We're explaining the data and why it matters."
The data come from sensors that monitor streams for water flow, temperature, conductivity, and turbidity and transmit the information to the website. A data viewer allows users to "play" with the real-time data, creating interactive graphs and animations.
Animated data examples show users what happens to streams under different scenarios, such as the changes to water temperatures after it rains and stormwater runs over hot asphalt.
Planning for the website was begun in 2002 when Minnesota Sea Grant, NRRI, the City of Duluth, and others partnered to help the community address U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Phase II stormwater pollution issues. The site came on-line in 2003 as www.duluthstreams.org.
A Regional Stormwater Protection Team of 25 agencies and organizations collaborates on content development.
The project expanded to cover broader western Lake Superior watersheds in Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2005, and the name changed to www.lakesuperiorstreams.org.
The website averages about 400,000 hits a month and has gotten as many as 500,000 hits a month, says Axler.
The site, which has received six awards since 2004 from state, regional, and national organizations, would be "very transferable," says Pat Collins, program manager of Minnesota's Lake Superior Coastal Program, which provided funding for the project.
Collins adds, "It's something that's been useful to a wide variety of audiences here."
To view the website, point your browser to www.lakesuperiorstreams.org. For more information, contact Richard Axler at (218) 720-4316, ext. 4279, or raxler@nrri.umn.edu. You may also contact Jesse Schomberg at (218) 726-6182, or jschombe@d.umn.edu.
