Four Township Water Resources Council

Home

News

Publications

Calendar

Join!

Contact Us

Board of Directors

January 2007

Four-Township Water Resources Council focuses on education

The Four-Township Water Resources Council (FTWRC) has been continuing its efforts to protect water quality by focusing on citizen education and involvement.

In 2006 the Council began working with the Barry Co. Road Commission to place signs along roads to raise awareness about local water resources and their relationship to the watersheds, with signs marking the Pine Lake-Gun River Watershed and many road crossings over Prairieville and Augusta creeks or their tributaries. In 2007 the Kalamazoo County Road Commission will begin erecting similar signs marking Augusta Creek and Spring Brook and their watersheds.

The Council was awarded a $25,000 education grant in February 2006 by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek. During the summer and fall of 2006, FTWRC and MSU Extension conducted training sessions for elementary school teachers in the use of the Junior Citizen Planner (JCP) curriculum that deals with land use and environmental topics in the Delton-Kellogg, Gull Lake Community and Galesburg-Augusta school systems.
In June 2006 the FTWRC hosted an educational paddle tour on Upper Crooked Lake near Delton. Naturalists and conservation specialists guided canoers and kayakers across the lake and through wetlands. The Council has a similar event planned on Gull Lake, tentatively scheduled for June 12, 2007.

Preservation of the headwaters of the major stream systems in the four townships is another priority for the Council. A major effort is planned to protect Prairieville and Augusta Creeks and Spring Brook.

The Four Township Water Resources Council has produced a wealth of research publications and preservation guides. These are available at area libraries and the Conservation District and MSU Extension offices by download from the Council's website, www.ftwrc.org, or on CD, available for a small fee from the Council by emailing mail@ftwrc.org.

June 2006

Crooked Lake Paddle Tour

For the third year in a row, the Council staged a highly successful tour of one of the water resources in the Four Township area. On June 17, 2006, participants gathered at the one room Brown School House (ca. 1873) at the Bernard Historical Museum on the north shore of Upper Crooked Lake in Prairieville Township. After a brief orientation, a review of the proposed lake level control weir by Barry County Drain Commissioner Tom Doyle and a primer on lakescaping, over three dozen people joined the Council for a guided tour of the lake.

Jane Herbert, MSU Extension District Water Quality Educator at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, and Steve Allen,  an ecological and native plant consultant with Geum Services, Inc., pointed out features to illustrate lakescaping, shoreline landscaping to protect water quality. Along with Dr. Stephen Hamilton, MSU Associate Professor in Zoology at the Biological Station, they helped paddlers appreciate the plants, animals, habitat and ecology of the lake.

June 2006

New road signs identify Pine Lake area

Travelers and residents of the Pine Lake area can now see approximately where their watershed starts thanks to new signs developed by the Four-Township Water Resources Council.  These attractive new signs were placed near major road intersections so that travelers from any direction will notice when entering the Pine Lake area.

The goal of the project is to raise awareness about area water resources and their location.  Road signs for other watersheds will be added in the future.

March 2006

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Awards Education Grant

The Four Townships Water Resources Council was awarded a $25,000 education grant in February by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek.  This grant will be used to provide teacher training for the introduction of a land use education curriculum into the 3^rd, 4th, and 5^th grades in the Galesburg/Augusta Schools, Delton Kellogg Schools, and Gull Lake Community Schools for the 2006/2007 school year. 

The Four Townships Water Resources Council has established the education of the residents of the four townships in land use issues as one of its top priorities.  The Junior Citizen Planner program was selected as a way of achieving that goal.  The introduction of this program into the school curriculum will expose students to land use issues in their communities at an earlier age than would have likely occurred otherwise.  By doing so these students will be better prepared to make land use decision in their futures.

The Junior Citizen Planner program provides for teacher training in land use issues.  This program will demonstrate to teachers the need for introducing land use decision making to their students, show teachers how to best utilize the Junior Citizen Planner curriculum to compliment the school’s/teacher’s existing curricula, evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum training by maintaining ongoing contact with the teachers who have implemented the curriculum, and provide the impetus for continuing the land use curriculum beyond the 2006/2007 school year.

The Junior Citizen Planner is a joint effort between Michigan State University Extension Citizen Planner Program and the Michigan 4-H.  The program’s lesson plans are certified to meet Michigan Curriculum Framework Standards and Benchmarks for 3rd - 8th grade. The curriculum consists of four units broken into multiple lessons designed to help students grow and develop into involved citizens who understand the importance and practice of wise land use.   The four units included in the program are Community and Civics Indoor Activities, Geography Indoor Activities, Environment and Land Use, and Technology Enhancement.  These units include lessons such as Walking Neighborhood Surveys, Map It: How Well Do You Know Your Neighborhood, Farmland Development, and Landopoly: A Decision-Making Game.

Each of the lessons in the Junior Citizen Planner Program curriculum is designed to present an unbiased introduction to controversial land use issues, presenting all sides of an issue in a fair and honest manner. Social studies, science, mathematics, and English as well as skills such as classification, mapping, analysis, observation, reporting, gathering, investigation, comparison, graphing, reading and writing are taught.   The lessons range in duration from one to several class periods and provide fun and creative experiential and hands on experiences.  The lessons are easy to follow and fit well into the existing curricula.

Junior Citizen Planner Project press release

MSU Extension's Junior Citizen Planner web site

last update June 19, 2006