Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Sustainability of Resources in the Chadron Creek Watershed
EPA Grant Number: SU833510Title: Sustainability of Resources in the Chadron Creek Watershed
Investigators: Leite, Michael
Institution: Chadron State College
EPA Project Officer: Page, Angela
Phase: I
Project Period: August 31, 2007 through July 31, 2008
Project Amount: $9,088
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2007) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Challenge Area - Sustainable and Healthy Communities , P3 Awards , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
Chadron Creek is an important water resource for the region around Chadron, Nebraska. It is diverted for part of the municipal water supply and to a lesser degree for agriculture. The riparian forest and subirrigated meadows that line its banks provide wildlife habitat and rangeland, two mainstays of the region’s economy. Thus, as a field study area with relevance for geological, biological, and economic studies, Chadron Creek is almost ideal.
In March of 2006 I wanted to give the students in my “geology of water resources” class an experience in stream hydrology. Chadron Creek was the obvious choice because of its nearness to campus, and also because the creek is small and it is possible to traverse its entire length in a few hours, from its headwaters in the Pine Ridge to its confluence with the White River only about 12 miles north (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Map of the Chadron Creek watershed. Burn
area outline from USDA Forest Service, Nebraska
National Forest.
To increase the scope of my students’ experience, I asked Dr. Barbara Hayford, the college’s expert in midges (Family Chironomidae) and some of her students to accompany our field party. Dr. Hayford was interested in using midges as an indicator of water quality, since their larvae are aquatic and are sensitive to water chemistry. Her students were studying entomology, and like my water resources students, they were eager for an experience outside the classroom. Our collaboration was successful: working together, we compiled a sizeable amount of data that provided us with insights into the health of the stream.
Our brief field experience also provided food for thought. In subsequent discussions Dr. Hayford, some of the students and I began to discuss the need for more information about the creek. We discussed questions such as, “What would be the result of running other measures of water quality?”, “Is the water quality or quantity threatened by human impacts or the ongoing drought?” (Fig. 2), and, “To what extent does the community of Chadron rely on the resources made possible by this watershed?”
Figure 2. Nebraska drought map.
In late July, 2006, while we were still pondering these questions, the area was struck by a series of wildfires. On July 30th the “Spotted Tail” fire, swept northward to the edge of Chadron, burning about 26,000 acres of ponderosa pine forest and grassland (Fig. 1). Like all residents, we were shaken by the experience. And in the recovery period our questions, plus new ones prompted by the disaster, took on new urgency.
The timing of our first limited attempt at studying the Chadron Creek was fortunate because we already had in hand some data on prefire stream health. So we thought that we might be able to answer the most important new question of whether the fire had any measurable impacts on the stream or the other resources that derive from it. Discussions of fire impact were taking place all over campus in the fall of 2006. Our core group grew by the addition of range professor Dr. Charles Butterfield and a number of new students. This was the beginning of the Chadron “Watershed Team” (WST). In October we decided to apply for funding from the P3 program.
WST is an interdisciplinary group, calling on the skills and opinions of a range of participants (mostly undergraduate students) in the natural and applied sciences. In preparing the P3 proposal, we analyzed our range of expertise in the light of the resource issues at hand. Encouraged by the interdisciplinary approach, we decided that we could best tackle complex tasks of resource conservation by breaking down traditional boundaries between disciplines and between academia and the community. Rather than the academics always being the ones with the answers, we wanted to start a habit of asking questions of members of the community to learn about how they use their resources and the solutions they may have. Thus was conceived the organizational model for the group.
The SHEL Model
SHEL stands for Shared Hierarchy of Experiential Learning. We envisioned bringing together students, landowners, community groups, federal, state, and city governmental units, and nongovernment organizations to share their hierarchy of knowledge bases through the experience of collecting data about their resources. We include all these individuals and organizations in the group known as watershed stakeholders. This organizational model agrees very well with the P3 philosophy in that it integrates the traditional focus on environmental health with the resource needs of the citizens.
The SHEL model requires a level of communication that is different from most science-focused endeavors. Scientists tend to be good at discussing their findings with each other but not naturally adept at communicating with the public. We decided that because this group’s conclusions about local resources were so important for the public to understand—and that their investigations were inherently interesting to the public—we would attempt to involve community members whenever possible in our activities.
We contacted people whom we identified as key stakeholders and asked them to sign on as partners in the WST. These individuals and their affiliations are listed in Table 1.
Table 1. List of participants involved in WST, Fall of 2006. Abbreviations: CC—Chadron Creek, LO—Landowner, Pub—Public Organization.
Empowering the Stakeholder Community
We established the WST as a consortium of partnerships with student researchers at the hub (Fig. 3). The group’s original purpose was to provide a forum for student discussion of natural resource issues outside the conventional classroom. Although we were motivated by the resource impacts of the 2006 fires, we focused on the long term. And in seeking new participants, we identified individuals on the basis of their expertise as it related to the larger resource picture. For example, we sought the help of economist Thom Swanke and his students to analyze the tourist industry. Despite several contacts of this sort, the group is inclusive in nature. We encouraged all interested individuals to join our discussions.
Figure 3. The SHEL Model.
A thought that arose in the minds of many of the early participants became a sort of founding premise for our group. This was that sustainable use of any resource will never be possible if the stakeholders do not understand that resource. At the very minimum, knowing where their water supply originates is a prerequisite for the incentive to conserve water at home. And, given the opportunity and access to the tools and expertise allowing deeper penetration into the resource issue, some stakeholders will take on the role of stewards of the resource. It is empowerment of this sort that we were after; and after experimenting for over a year with the SHEL approach, we are convinced that this method can be effective in other watersheds and could become an empowering force for water-resource stakeholders in any area of the world.
Hypothesis and Goals
We posed one formal hypothesis: “Measures of water quality parameters in Chadron Creek will vary significantly with inputs from burn zones and changes in land use management practices of grazing.”
To address the hypothesis directly and indirectly we proposed the following four interrelated goals:
- Goal 1. To study the extent of the challenge of degraded water quality to the sustainability of Chadron Creek
- Goal 2, To create a model to address the challenge of degraded water quality to the sustainability of Chadron Creek
- Goal 3, To study stakeholder perceptions of the risks to the sustainability of the social, environmental, and economic benefits of the Chadron Creek watershed
- Goal 4, To clean, clear, and care for our study sites by removing litter and invasive species of plants.
Anticipated Goals Assessment
We proposed to continue data collection by teams of participants (Figs. 4 and 5), the method by which we anticipated meeting Goal 1. We adopted the protocols laid out in EPA publication EPA 841-B-97-003, Volunteer Stream Monitoring: A Methods Manual (US EPA, 1997). Data collecting events were to be cross-disciplinary and collaborative, involving the students, the faculty mentors, cooperating landowners, government and non-government entities, and members of the community.
Figure 4. WST participants measuring discharge on Chadron
Creek.
Figure 5. WST students doing a census of
fish in Chadron Creek.
The SHEL model and its implementation would allow us to meet Goal 2. To assess the shared hierarchy of experiential learning we proposed to conduct surveys of stakeholder groups.
Surveys and oral histories will document stakeholder perceptions of the risks to the sustainability of the social, environmental, and economic benefits of Chadron Creek watershed and form the assessment of Goal 3.
Removal of litter and invasive species (Goal 4) was to be documented by counts of litter bags per site and pre-and post-clean up photographs.
We anticipated presenting our conclusions, both about the success of the SHEL model implementation and the scientific conclusions as to resource sustainability, to the U.S. EPA, local partners, and the Nebraska Academy of Sciences in a variety of forms.
Integration of P3 concepts as an educational tool
The SHEL model brought together stakeholders, students, and mentors to share their understanding of the social benefits, economic benefits, and environmental benefits of the Chadron Creek watershed. As an educational tool, the SHEL model was designed to cross discipline boundaries and produce knowledge and experience which are greater than the sum of any one part. Those concepts have been used as an educational tool at CSC and in the K-12 system in the following ways:
- Chadron State College Sustainable Resource Seminar—Student participants (and other students) will take one credit of seminar each semester of their participation.
- Service Learning—Service learning projects allow students to learn through experience and by providing a service.
- Environmental Education—An environmental education project funded by the EPA began under the direction of Dr. Hayford in fall 2006. This project integrates well with our SHEL model. Students in biology work with Chadron secondary school students in volunteer stream monitoring of streams in the region, including select sites along Chadron Creek that correspond to sites in the WST study.
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the WST project and the additional educational opportunities listed above, student participants in the project as well as students outside of the project will learn through experience that Chadron Creek is part of a watershed, that land use and land cover in the watershed impacts the stream water quality, and that people must work together to conserve the social, economic, and environmental benefits of a watershed to sustain it for future generations to use.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
We achieved most of the major components of all of our goals. Below is a list of the WST’s major accomplishments, followed by critical assessments.
- Measured environmental quality in the watershed in the areas of physical hydrology, chemistry, microbiology, biology of macroinvertebrates, fishes and birds, rangeland ecology, and riparian vegetation.
- Initiated a program of seasonal environmental assessment.
- Developed an electronic database for storage and analysis of environmental data on the watershed.
- Initiated communication with stakeholders via public meetings, surveys, publications and a Web site.
- Published findings in various scientific forums.
- Realized the WST as an educational tool.
Measurement of Environmental Quality
One of the most rewarding accomplishments of the WST project has been the ability to work together as a team collecting data. The team as a whole was divided into subgroups that focused on collecting certain discipline-specific data. Table 2 lists the 13 subgroups.
During this study data collecting events took place four times a year. This frequency is not necessarily dictated by our sampling protocols (e.g., US EPA, 1999) but rather in the need to work out the details of sampling procedure and in training students to do the work. Team members gather at the science building around 7:30 and load their gear into college vehicles. The team drives in a convoy to the sites. Field procedure is organized so that teams can collect their data most efficiently. For example, no one can go into the water until the chemistry and microbiology teams have collected their data. The physical watershed team waits until the end, at which time they wade into the stream to measure the bottom profile and flow. Field procedure may change as we find more efficient methods of getting the job done.
Communication.— Communication is at the heart of the SHEL model and a process that is critical for any enterprise that aims to benefit a large and diverse body of resource users. Communication is at the center of science also, of course, but the traditional means of communication among scientists are not very effective among the larger populace (Lubchenco, 1998). With this in mind, we set out to design a study that would incorporate non-scientists in the data collection process. We specifically targeted members of the stakeholder community in some of our communication efforts. We recruited student and faculty participants from the communications arts and information technology programs to consult with the rest of the group in communications matters.
Web Site.— The WST uses the Web as a primary means of communication. We first established a site on a free public wiki site, p3chadron.wikispaces.com Exit . This served mostly as an internal communications forum for the group. We intended it to be open to the general public but it was not an effective means of communication with the public because we did not widely advertise it. The wiki site is used to post announcements and to store a small database of images, maps, and publications for download by users.
After we had established the need for a more robust Web site that could incorporate database access we purchased the domain name watershedteam.org and started building a new site on www.watershedteam.org Exit . When this site is in full operation in the summer of 2008 it will probably become our sole base of operations on the Web. To help design and build the Web site, a team of two information-science (IS) students, assisted by two communications students, were recruited to become WST members. One of the IS students is receiving internship credit for his efforts. We received help from the Chadron State College Foundation to cover his tuition costs associated with the internship.
Each of the discipline groups posts a current protocol of its field and laboratory procedures on its part of the web site. In addition, we have posted a catalog of images demonstrating the field and laboratory procedures of each group. We will make the site available later in 2008 to the general public, who will be able to read about WST and possibly download other information.
Print Publications.— We produced manuals for student teams describing field and laboratory protocols. We have in preparation a manual for landowners that describes how to start monitoring a stream without lots of equipment. It relies heavily on EPA’s “Volunteer Stream Monitoring: A Methods Manual” (US EPA, 1997). Emphasis is on how a private citizen without access to much equipment or expertise can understand his or her own water resources and thus be empowered to act when it is threatened.
Database
We are developing an online database on our Web site (www.watershedteam.org Exit ) that will be used for storage of water-quality data. We expect to be able to enter the first data into this database by the middle of April, 2008. After that, designated team members will be able to enter their field data into the database after each collecting event. Our IT designer is adding functionality to the database so that it can be expanded to other watersheds and other watershed teams. Ultimately we anticipate being able to search the database to retrieve water quality data, for example, over time at one locality, or at multiple localities in a given time.
Scientific Presentation
Publication of our results in traditional scientific forums proceeded on several fronts. We attempted to have all of our disciplinary teams summarize their conclusions in abstract form (Nebraska Academy of Sciences—perhaps other symposia later); those with more significant results will be aiming for longer publications.
Our lead student Jennifer Balmat organized a special session for the Watershed Team at the annual meeting of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, in Lincoln, NE, on April 18th, 2008. Multi-author teams consisting of a total of 29 students and eight faculty submitted abstracts in February and will present their findings at this session. A total of ten papers will be presented. Following are brief summaries.
The People, Planet and Prosperity Competition at Chadron State College; Jennifer L. Balmat, R. Pinkelman, P. Johnson, D. J. Schweitzer, and M. B. Leite. This paper summarizes the Watershed Team project from its initiation and the P3 proposal to its challenges and successes as an interdisciplinary research group. It presents some of the proposals of this report for Phase 2 of the project.
A Historical Perspective of Civic Water Projects, Chadron, Nebraska; Daniel J. Schweitzer and J. R. Hyer. The history group used reports in print media going back to Chadron’s settlement in the 1880s to look for correlations between water-related issues such as droughts, fires, and waterworks construction, and public discourse. This group continues to analyze media interest in water supply issues, especially as relating to economic factors, and will continue to examine trends in water use and availability.
Chemistry of Water Quality in Chadron Creek Watershed; Rebecca Pinkelman, A. Fischer, and Z. Varpness. Water quality plays an important role in indicating the health of the watershed and its ecosystem. This group analyzed the water using standard chemical parameters including dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, and temperature. Preliminary data from Chadron Creek shows relatively good water quality.
Analysis of Fecal Coliform Bacteria in Chadron Creek; Muriah L. Messersmith, D. S. McDermott, J. A. Brummer, A. M. Cox, L. M. Curtiss, A. L. Schauer, and A. M. Buchmann. Fecal coliform bacteria are normally present in surface water but high numbers might indicate contamination. Preliminary results indicate that much of the Chadron Creek watershed has low fecal coliform levels; however, some sites exhibited relatively high levels, indicating possible localized contamination.
Economic Impact of the Spotted Tail Wildfire on Chadron, Nebraska; Jessica Burke, N. Hagan, R. Burke, and T. Swanke. This group created several linear regression models that examined the impact of the recent drought and fires on tourism and local tax revenue.
Macroinvertebrate Assessment of Chadron Creek, Nebraska; Pam Johnson and S. Blood. The preliminary data shows 31 distinct families of macroinvertebrates present in Chadron Creek. There is a decrease in the number of families going from the stream’s headwaters to its mouth, which may indicate disturbance. Sediment-tolerant insects present in the lower reaches indicate increased sediment load compared to the headwaters.
Rangeland and Upland Forest Health Evaluation of The Chadron Creek Watershed, Dawes County, Nebraska; Justin Lemmer, A. Horn, S. Morse, K. Karlburg, J. Julson, C. Butterfield. A standard range census procedure determined basal cover and plant community composition. The overall rangeland is mature grassland with little to no deviation from the native plant community. An exceptionally disturbed pant community was observed where Chadron Creek crosses under a highway. The major plant species are smooth brome, Kentucky bluegrass, and various wheat grasses at all sites.
The Fishes of Chadron Creek, Dawes County, Nebraska; Virgilio A. Villeda, K. Charron, C. Lecher, W. J. Svoboda, and C. T. McAllister. The fish team reported for the first time a baseline inventory of the fishes living in Chadron Creek. They found seven species: brown trout, creek chub, longnose dace, brassy minnow, fathead minnow, flathead chub and white sucker. Preliminary results are that this ecosystem is “healthy” and supports a thriving population of brown trout in Chadron State Park.
Preliminary Geology of the Chadron Creek Watershed, Dawes County Nebraska; Joshua W. Balmat, J. L. Balmat, M. J. Culver, J. Zwiebel, H. E. LaGarry, and M. B. Leite. Chadron Creek is fed by springs originating in the Monroe Creek Formation of the Arikaree Group. Chadron Creek then flows over strata which are part of the High Plains Aquifer, and the White River Group, which is an aquitard. The bedrock underlying the Chadron Creek valley is filled with 5-12 meters of middle and late Holocene sand and silt alluvium. Abundant joints and faults in the Chadron Creek watershed potentially transmit water between the bedrock and alluvium.
Discharge Of Chadron Creek, Dawes County, Nebraska; Austin Butterfield, J. L. Balmat, J. W. Balmat, K. Young, M. Culver, M. B. Leite, and H. E. LaGarry. Chadron Creek, via numerous springs, is a gaining stream until about one quarter of its length downstream, where it begins to lose water through evapotranspiration and infiltration. In its upper stretch the stream reaches a maximum discharge of about 0.1 m3/sec. In the summer of 2007 the lower part of the stream dried up. Anecdotal evidence of historical flows suggests that complete drying up of parts of the creek is unusual and may indicate that the stream is in danger.
Further Studies
Several teams have also collected data suitable for publication in other forms. Dr. Chris McAllister has submitted a manuscript describing the fish populations of Chadron Creek. As noted above, this is the first time the fish have been censused and this work provides an important baseline dataset. Dr. McAllister’s work also discovered a rare fish in Chadron Creek that argues for future work.
Tomelleri and Eberle (1990) consider the occurrence of the mountain sucker (Catostomus platyrhynchus) in Nebraska to be extremely rare. It is currently listed state rank S1, critically imperiled (Sowa et al., 2006). Historically, collections of C. platyrhynchus in the state were from areas near the border in South Dakota and are considered to have represented the limit of its range (Schainost and Koneya 1999). Everman and Cox, in 1896, reported collecting C. platyrhynchus from Chadron Creek, a tributary of the White River drainage (Schainost and Koneya 1999). Mountain suckers have not been collected in the state since 1939 when found by Raymond Johnson in a tributary of Hat Creek, part of the Cheyenne River drainage (Schainost and Koneya 1999). Because it has not been collected in Nebraska since 1939 and because many sections of the streams in which it was historically found now become seasonally dry, the species is considered extirpated in Nebraska (Schainost and Koneya 1999; Belica and Nibbelink, 2006).
As part of the overall WST project, the fish team has electroshocked nine stations on the Chadron Creek on three separate occasions (Nov. 2007, Feb. 2008, March 2008) without finding any mountain suckers. However, further attempts at collecting C. platyrhynchus in the Chadron Creek watershed and surrounding watersheds, particularly those associated with the White River, is certainly warranted.
A paper summarizing the WST fish censuses is in review:
- McAllister, C. T., V. A. Villeda, C. Lecher, and K. Charron. 2008. Fishes of the Chadron Creek watershed, Dawes, County, Nebraska. Prairie Naturalist (in review).
Our economics member, Dr. Ron Burke, is going to submit parts of his and his students’ work to the Nebraska Economics and Business Association, for presentation at a conference in October, 2008.
Conclusions:
The WST project was successful in that its major goals were accomplished. But it did contain significant learning moments that necessitated improvements to the original model. We found that it is possible for a large group of scientifically trained students to work together toward a common goal and to carry out a certain amount of cross-training while doing so.
The strength of discipline training, even among students at early stages in their careers, was stronger than expected. We found a tendency to focus on one’s own discipline without delegating tasks to other team members (even though help is needed), which was often detrimental to efficient task completion. Many of the tasks involved—collecting water in a bottle, or lowering a probe into the water, for example—were not highly technical in nature and could be accomplished by any intelligent person. But most students did not automatically share their tasks this way.
We think that we can reorganize teams to minimize this “discipline tunnel vision.” These would be small teams of about five people, cross-trained to carry out at least two of the tasks, and prepared to learn more as needed. They would be able to collect all of the data in a sampling event. Smaller teams will be able to move faster, and more teams would be available to expand the project to other watersheds.
Contrary to hopes, WST has not been sufficiently effective in including community members in a dialog about water resources and participation in sampling events. Only three community members began to attend our regular Friday meetings. We had one community gathering, on a Saturday with a winter storm, for which attendance was light. Nevertheless we did have some discussions about our project with a few concerned citizens, and plans for a spring community gathering are in place. The WST has started to receive some local publicity as a result of events like these and thus is becoming a visible force in the community. With this we are seeing a slow growth in getting the message out.
We are seeing small changes that the WST has made in the community that are having positive impacts. As an example, a local group called the High Plains Center for Sustainability (HPCS) organized about the same time the WST was started. The group’s original focus was as a grass-roots response to the climate-change problem. But members starting voicing concern about the water supply when the community entered its eighth year of drought (Fig. 2) and other water issues were in the news. A water-focus subcommittee was formed and WST members played a large role in getting discussions going. This spring HPCS is hosting a public forum on the water supply. Members of local and state resource agencies and local politicians have been invited to attend and speak. Perhaps WST cannot take credit for making this happen, but we have been part of the local discussion that brought it about.
We can conclude that WST and the SHEL model it used is a success. Our measurements did not find any serious degradation of water quality. Although eventually we expect to have enough quantitative data on Chadron Creek to test the hypothesis that water quality is being degraded by either the drought or by increased runoff due to fire, our results qualitatively show that students and citizens can work together to understand their water resources.
There is no reason that the SHEL model cannot be applied to another watershed in essentially any part of the world. We are employing only well established techniques and standard methods of water-quality and biotic assessment. We need only to get out the message that it can be done. That citizens who are concerned about their resources do not have to rely on their governments to give them information they need. In parts of the world where government environmental services may be lacking, individual empowerment to take charge of the vital water resource may contribute to an improvement in the quality of people’s lives. It is only necessary to get the word out to these places using the medium of the World Wide Web.
The SHEL model is already being applied to another watershed, albeit by a person who helped get WST started. Dr. Barbara Hayford, now a professor at Chadron State College’s sister institution, Wayne State College, is proposing to start another watershed team on South Logan Creek, in northeastern Nebraska. Implementation of the model will be organized through Wayne State College and will proceed along the same lines as ours, with the addition of K-12 stream monitoring. Their goal is to have the first stage of the model implemented by May 2008 and to have the first watershed-wide collection event on Volunteer Water Monitoring Day, 18 October 2008.
Perhaps we can call this approach “sustainability in a box,” a sort of recipe for selfempowerment of individuals concerned about first identifying and subsequently monitoring a watershed using a community participation model. Three advantages of this model include:
- Community members (including academics, agencies, landowners, ranchers and farmers) participate in activities that produce a knowledge base understood and used by all stakeholders. This promotes a “We’re all in this together mindset.”
- Relieves dependence on “knowledge keepers” such as financially-stressed government agencies.
- Promotes “citizen scientists” and science literacy among the general public.
Implementation of WST involved the cooperation of the following public partners:
- University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension
- Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
- Nebraska Department of Natural Resources
- Upper Niobrara-White River Natural Resources District
- High Plains Center For Sustainability
- USDA Forest Service, Nebraska National Forest
- City of Chadron
- Chadron Chamber of Commerce
- Keep Chadron Beautiful
- Nebraska Academy of Sciences
- Chadron State College departments of Physical and Life Sciences, Applied Sciences, Business and Economics, History, Communication Arts.
We were able to leverage the following funds beyond those from the EPA grant.
Supplemental Keywords:
RFA, Air, climate change, Air Pollution Effects, AtmosphereThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.