City project draws volunteers to lake

As two women walked down the Wetlands Trail along Bloomington’s Griffy Lake, the frozen soil crunched beneath their feet. Approaching a cluster of fallen branches along the trail, one of the women threw the branches to the side as the other picked up a small piece of trash.

For one of the women, 19-year-old IU sophomore and IDS copy editor Kim Payne, the cold Friday morning marked the first day for her next year-long project for Bloomington’s Citizen Scientist Certification Program.

“I’m looking out for fallen branches, anything that’s blocking the path, anything that may pose a problem to people walking it or anything that is just not healthy for the environment,” Payne said.

The other woman, the Environmental Commission’s Education Specialist Kriste Lindberg, pointed out the area’s wildlife as they walked along the lake’s crystal-clear water.

Lindberg is in charge of Bloomington’s Citizen Scientist Certification Program, a volunteer project through the City of Bloomington’s Parks and Recreation Department, as well as the City of Bloomington’s Utilities Department. The purpose of the program, Lindberg said, is for volunteers to help the city protect the community’s natural resources.

So far, more than a dozen volunteers, mostly students from IU and Ivy Tech Community College, have committed to this year’s certification program, Lindberg said — but she’s hoping for more.

“Basically, what we ask people to do is take at least two programs and volunteer at least 10 hours within a year,” Lindberg said. “And a lot of people get it done in a lot shorter time span, more like a semester.”

Through the Citizen Scientist Certification Program, volunteers are trained to help preserve the area’s environment through a variety of projects.

This year, Payne is participating in the city’s Adopt-A-Trail program. In the past, Payne helped the city clean Crystal Lake and Lower Cascades Park.

Other volunteer projects that qualify for the certification program include invasive plant eradication, geographic information systems projects and rain gardens.

Although Payne admits it is often hard to fit volunteer projects into her busy schedule, she views her projects as an opportunity to get off campus. Plus, she said, she is helping the environment.

“One of the main premises of the CSCP is to expand resources,” Lindberg said. “Volunteers help us to keep the quality of life up in the community. It is especially important during these tough economic times.”

Besides the Adopt-A-Trail project, Lindberg said, the program is also focusing on water quality monitoring, watershed projects and storm drain marking.

Lindberg said most of the streams in Indiana are considered impaired from pollution.
This pollution comes from a variety of sources, Lindberg said. Because Bloomington’s storm drains run directly into the streams, misuse of these drains contributes to the pollution.

Sediment and run-off from roads also contributes to the pollution, Lindberg said.
The Clear Creek Water Shed Project, which incorporates an IU chemistry class, the American Cetacean Society Student Coalition and School of Public and Environmental Affairs students, aims to improve the water quality in Jordan River.

Jordan River, which runs through the IU campus and underneath Bloomington, has been monitored by volunteers at several points for the last three semesters.

By collecting chemical and biological data, as well as physical assessments of the stream, volunteers have developed an overview of the stream’s water quality.

“I’m excited about it,” Payne said. “It will be fun to be out in nature more and to really be familiar with the nature that’s around Griffy and part of Bloomington.”