Thank you to all who joined us for the 17th annual River Conservation Day held this past Saturday, Oct. 3. This event was sponsored by The City of Charlotte, Charlotte Wellhead Protection Team, Eaton Conservation District and for the 2nd year, Michigan United Conservation Clubs ‘ON THE WATER’ Program.
Twenty-two people came out to clear debris along the river from the Cochran Rd. bridge to the Paine Dr. walking trail, work on the trail at the end of Paine Drive, and remove debris upstream and downstream of the Lansing Road bridge on Butternut Creek. New this year was the Stormwater Warriors, who removed street litter around storm drains in downtown Charlotte and placed ‘Do Not Dump’ labels and stencils at storm drains as a reminder that stormwater flowing through these drains do not get treated before dumping directly to an outflow pipe at the Cochran Rd. bridge.
Another new project was the establishment of a Sentinel Tree in Bennett Park. MSU’s Eyes on the Forest program includes establishing a network of ‘sentinel trees’ across the state. The goal is to build a network of volunteers who agree to ‘adopt’ one or more trees, then monitor and report on the condition of the tree(s) annually. A network of sentinel trees increases the chances that new pests or other problems will be detected early. A beautiful maple was picked to monitor and the Asian Longhorn beetle was discussed as a threat that the state of Michigan is monitoring. The Asian longhorn beetle is not in the state of Michigan now, but has been found in Ohio. This maple tree at Bennett Park will be monitored and used as an educational project at Science Adventure Camp and River Conservation Day. For more information on the Sentinel Tree project, please contact the Eaton Conservation District at 517-543-1512 extension five.
Submitted by Eaton Conservation District