Human Health Assessment

Draft Bailey Dailey Article

RED CEDAR RIVER: The “Tipping Point” is Growing Closer!

By: John L. Hesse, Adjunct Faculty, Bailey Scholars/Fisheries and Wildlife

It has been an exciting Fall Semester on the Red Cedar River. A lot is happening that I’d like to share with the Bailey Community.

In an earlier issue of the Bailey Dailey (“On the Banks of the Red Cedar”, December 2000) I talked about several initiatives started by students who were enrolled at that time in my ANR 392 class, The Red Cedar River, A Meandering Laboratory. Knowing the river’s long-standing public image of being badly polluted and the problems with it being trashed with bicycles, shopping carts and other litter, the students focused on small actions that they hoped would help improve the river’s image and the negative behaviors toward it.

The students were acting under the concept put forward by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, “The Tipping Point”, that even small actions can sometimes have a large impact toward solving social problems. Gladwell theorized that similar to the way a disease can suddenly turn into an epidemic when certain conditions occur, positive actions can also touch off a sequence of events that can become “epidemic” in proportion. Seven small projects were carried out as part of the class and some of them, including river cleanups each semester, have been maintained as on-going efforts.

Unfortunately, widespread apathy and negative attitudes continue to persist. The public perception is that the river is so polluted it won’t support life and is very dangerous to humans or animals who come in contact with the water. In reality, early results of studies being conducted as part of a current research effort on campus show that water quality is very good with diverse communities of pollution-intolerant fish and macroinvertebrates found in the river. Elevated E. coli levels do occur periodically following rain events but, for the majority of time, the river meets either swimming water quality or partial body contact health standards. Chemical monitoring of water and sediments are currently underway.

Since May 2002, a group of students and faculty have been meeting monthly to generate and implement new ideas that might have a larger long-term impact toward changing the public image of the river. The project is now being called the Red Cedar River Educational Initiative. One very significant effort has been the incorporation of Red Cedar River issues into numerous courses being taught this Fall. These include (but may not be limited to) Laurie Thorp’s RISE Seminar class (NSC 192), Geoff Habron’s FW 100 Introduction to Fisheries and Wildlife Management Principles course, Terry Link’s RD 491 class on Sustainability, Jo Ann Beckwith’s RD 300 course on Environmental Conflict Management, Chuck Elzinga’s Honor’s Biology course in Lyman Briggs, and Lois Wolfson’s FW 474 course on Limnological and Fisheries Techniques.

These classes have a combined enrollment of approximately 200 students. Each course has included one or more field trips on the river and other activities to give students a better understanding of the water quality and the public perception issues.

FW 100 undertook 4 lab periods to engage in Red Cedar watershed activities. The first lab entailed conducting observations of the ducks at the dam near the Administration building. The following lab focused on a "river walk" from Farm Lane upstream to the Sanford Natural Area. Students collected data on the number and location of storm sewer outfalls, the number and location of squirrels and ducks, the density and sizes of trees and the number and activities of humans in each of the 4 lab sessions. In the third lab they conducted macroinvertebrate sampling at three different locations. One lab group collected just downstream of the dam, another group collected just downstream of Sparty and the third group collected behind the Kellogg Center. They spread out the effort to reduce any environmental impact of having 25 students in the stream at each location. The final lab involved students conducting interviews at 6 different locations on campus on issues and perspectives of the Red Cedar watershed. This was followed by a reflective writing exercise. One specific question on the second exam asked students to use the Red Cedar watershed to describe their understanding of fisheries and wildlife management. As a result of these collective activities, many students wish to do something to raise awareness about the river and to engage in watershed protection activities.

Students in the Environmental Conflict Management class designed and carried out detailed interviews of various community members (including other students) about their perceptions of the river. Following the in-depth interviews (Authors Note: some of these were absolutely excellent) and a field trip to the river, the FW 300 students are designing public involvement strategies (as small groups) to address the sociological issues identified. Each group will also prepare a web page to complement their public involvement strategy.

The FW 474 and RD 491 classes joined forces on October 17 to help celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act and its impact on improving water quality nationally and in Michigan’s surface waters. Students gathered at the Red Cedar River (on a very cold morning-21 degrees!) to measure dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, and water clarity as part a nationwide volunteer monitoring effort. Working with federal and state agency representatives on-site, they compared test results as measured by three different methodologies. On this day, results were very similar using equipment ranging from extremely inexpensive to very sophisticated, all showing fairly high water quality. Data were entered into a national database that will report out combined results from thousands of lakes and streams across the United States.

What is really exciting is that student involvement in river issues this fall has not been limited to formal coursework. Several student organizations are carrying out stewardship projects related to helping the river. On October 12, the Friends of the Red Cedar organization (created during the Red Cedar course taught Fall semester, 2000) hosted its regular river cleanup now conducted each semester on the campus portion of the river. A total of 55 students representing several student groups participated in this event, during which they removed a record amount of trash from the river, including 29 junk bicycles. They plan to participate with an educational display at Autumnfest, November 16. For more information, contact Bailey Scholar, Shawn Mullaly.

The RDUO (Resource Development Undergraduate Organization) is currently hosting a photo contest focusing on the beauty of the river, with cash prizes for winners in several categories. The photos will be used in educational displays across campus. The deadline for entries is November 28. For more information, contact RDUO president Sara Felker.

Fisheries and Wildlife students have developed two educational posters that have already been used in many settings, including use in each of the class field trips mentioned above. One poster focuses on the diverse range of fish species that live in the Red Cedar and the other compares photos of the river in the 1960’s to now, showing a dramatic improvement in water quality.

These posters were also used as part of two displays set up at key points near the river for 3 hours preceding the two largest football Saturday home games this Fall (the Notre Dame and Minnesota games). The displays also included live macroinvertebrates and fish collected from the river. Hundreds of students, alumni, and other visitors to campus on these game days viewed the displays and voiced astonishment at the biological diversity and well-being of the river.

At Minnesota game day, students had live displays of 16 different fish species that they had collected from the river in two hours the previous day… an incredible statement about the high water quality in the river! This trial “Football Saturday” project appears to have been extremely effective and will likely be expanded next Fall. What a great experience to see the students and faculty volunteers having such a large impact on so many people! Commonly heard statements from display visitors or passers-by were “I never had any idea that the river was so clean” or “…that the river had improved so much since I went to school here!”

In summary, MSU faculty and students have taken some giant steps toward changing negative attitudes and behaviors associated with the Red Cedar River. Hopefully, more and more people working together in ways like those described above will indeed soon reach the “Tipping Point” described by Malcolm Gladwell, where the initiatives take on a life of their own, resulting in protection and greater use of this wonderful resource with which we are blessed on the MSU campus.

All of this is an outgrowth of meetings started in 1998 by the University Committee for a Sustainable Campus and the establishment of a Watershed Management Planning organization/process on campus referred to as MSU-WATER (Watershed Action Through Education and Research). In addition to the educational components described above, several MSU-WATER workgroups are making great strides toward inventorying problems, modeling, and gathering baseline chemical and biological data associated with the university’s impact on the Red Cedar. One primary goal is to develop a plan to address any problems and to collaborate with upstream and downstream partners to meet or surpass all water quality standards.

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