The Suburban Expedition

With the conclusion of UM-Dearborn's 2010 winter semester drawing near, members of the SEA decided it would be an appropriate time for a suburban expedition to a wetland in Livonia.

I'll reiterate:  SUBURBAN EXPEDITION!  Livonia wetland!

Tentatively this will happen on the weekend of the 8th/9th of May (hopefully the 9th as I'll be in Chicago or Detroit the day before).

The idea is to go into the field, get in touch with the great outdoors, do an on-site study where we all take some samples/do some scientific monitoring, explore, meet new people and have fun.

It's a good opportunity for everyone to learn new/swap field research techniques too.






Ideally, we'd as a group have some metathesis type (like, if members of the SEA and OES visit ____ area, then an awesome assessment of overall wetland health for that day will be found) study going on, and as individuals we'd break out into assessing individual parts.

So far here's what I can think of:

-Wetland compliance to regulations pointed out by Mr. Schubert and papers/presentation
-Vegetative ______ness (Mr. Cable)
-Something biodiversity indexness, like bird countage, or maybe sedge/rush count (Ian)
-Active mosquito bite index (everyone-geeky suggestion: we can plot bite frequencies to person/proximity to habitat type and stuff)

I'm sure there's more out there, I've invited OES to see if they've got interest in doing earthly studies and explorations with us. If there's anything else, let me know and I can add it to the list.

I'm not sure what else to expect, but I think there were bald eagles, sandhill cranes, invasive species, and emergent wetland vegetation to check out at least.  I'll also try to dig up my geology notes from Dr. Murray as there are a few livonia features to check out that bridge us to an interesting history of groundwater, industry, and Livonia's current ordinances.  No offense intended to Rob and other Livonia natives, but Livonia is notorious for the legacy of its many leaking underground storage tanks (L.U.S.T.s--a mix of fluids from gas stations and dry cleaners have leaked many a time in the not-to distant past), just ask Dr. Murray professor of Geology at UM-D.


If you're interested in joining us (if I may say so, some of UM-Dearborn's finest in the environmental studies/science programs), e-mail greenwolverines (at) ymail.com with "suburban expedition" in the subject header.