Kalamazoo River Watershed Council supports the Kalamazoo River Guardians, a local volunteer monitoring initiative in the Greater Kalamazoo area that participates in the statewide Michigan Clean Water Corps, or MiCorps monitoring program.
River Guardians is led by the Kalamazoo Nature Center with help from Kalamazoo College, Western Michigan University, and many community volunteers of all ages.
Interested in volunteering?
Email Anna at the Kalamazoo Nature Center for more information and to sign up.
The Nature Center organizes two sampling events each year on Saturday mornings, one in the spring and one in the fall. The dates of the events can only be selected a few weeks in advance based on environmental factors such as temperature and weather.
On the morning of each event, volunteers meet at a local park and receive training on sampling and collection methods. Equipment is provided. Then they break into groups and are assigned a stream sampling location where they collect macroinvertebrates. Groups then take their samples to the Kalamazoo Nature Center to sort, count, and identify the aquatic bugs.