Red Lake Nation River Watch
Introduction
Red Lake High School
Red Lake River Watershed/Upper and Lower Red Lake
Presented on March 15th, 2017
Watershed
Education 4th Grade Presentation
)
(River Watch)
RLHS offers River Watch as a 2 semester class. The course gives students a “Hands On”
approach to technology and monitoring & Sop’s in the field. The students learn about the
physical, chemical and biological parameters by collecting and analyzing data. Students
are involved in River Explorers, river of dreams and communicate their work to local
newspapers, radio broadcast and presentations to the community.
(Youth Forum 2017 Video education Plan for 4th or 5th graders)
* This lesson will focus on “our” Watershed “Upper & Lower Red Lake”. Students will learn about vocab terms applicable to
Red Lake Background History
Geophysical and Hydrological and Society Impact
Our Sub watershed & HUC
Land Types Features & Uses
Mud River Dam Removal &
Restoration
watersheds, meaning of watersheds, where our watershed lies, how & where our waters flow & our connectedness to
watersheds affecting water quality. “Sense of place”. (Discussion on prior knowledge of pollution on the land.)
* Lesson will involve students in a class cycle. First - (Introduction – Question & Answer – Concept Goal Clarity as a Whole
Group.) Second – (Small group Activity involves critical thinking.) Third – (Exhibit & Reflection) Fourth – Teacher evaluation
1. WHOLE GROUP – Discuss what is a Watershed? (LTG POSTER: Our Watershed – Upper & Lower Red Lake) ESSENTIAL
QUESTION: (1) Watershed means? (2) How does water flow in a Watershed? (3) Where does our water flow? (4) “How are we
connected to our watershed & water quality? (NOTE: These 4 questions will be written on back of each small group’s poster
board for reflection review at end of this activity.) (3 min)
–
VISUAL Aid You Tube pieces for Clarity - (a) Use you tube on “What is a watershed” & Google Earth to cover the 4 essential
questions. (Discuss 4 essential questions again.) (5 min)
2. SMALL GROUP – (Pre - Assigned by teacher.) (Assigned Roles Option) (POSTER WHITE BOARDS FOR EACH SMALL GROUP.) (8
colored CIRCLE POSTER tag board with definition of each VOCAB word on the back.) (Colored stickers, pins or tape to fasten to
poster board.) (4 Colored Maps on their board.) (2 min)
3. SMALL GROUP ACTIVITY – VOCAB WORDS FOR A WATERSHED: (Watershed – Headwaters – Tributaries Outlet – Flow –
Confluence – Meander – Water quality - ) (Hand out one vocab definition word at a time to match word with definition & locate
an example on a designated colored map. (a) Place the correct VOCAB TERM on the colored circle tag board matching the
correct definition & place on the group’s white poster board in a circle around your colored map. (One min each word.) (b) Use
the color code key on the bottom of the poster board for identifying vocab words. (c) RW student will use Google Earth &
project Our Watershed flow from the west outlet through cities to Grand Forks & where it joins the Red River & flows north to
Canada. (Students will follow along on a designated map & use arrow (>) marks to follow the flow of water west & north to
Canada.) (Students will learn about vocab terms on the journey such as – Flow – Confluence – Meander – Watershed –
Tributaries – Connectedness – along the way.) (e) Identify our Red Lake Watershed on one of the Maps & outline our watershed
using black marker.) (12 min)
4. CONNECTEDNESS CONCEPT: How are we connected to our watersheds? Does what we do affect our watershed & other
watersheds water quality? (“hands on” Human Impact Activity: - Recreation – Garbage waste – Automobiles – Homes & towns
– pavement roads & parking lots) (Label Styrofoam balls (types of materials that can pollute a river or lake in our watershed) &
place in water filled containers representing Upper & Lower Red Lake.) (5 min)
5. Trivia Review? (Terms) (Connectedness) (5 min)
6. Each group reflects & presents their work: (Answer questions on backside poster?) (5 min)
7. Teacher interview Reflection: (a) Good things about lesson? (b) What could be improved? (1 min)
* Teacher: (a) (Very interesting, student participation very good & students excited about their watershed.) (b) Maybe slow
things down a little & students raising hands more.
Lake Agassiz was the largest glacial lake in north America. It was formed 11,500
years ago in front of the northeastwardly retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet, which
acted as a dam. The lake covered much of Manitoba, northwestern Ontario, parts of
Saskatchewan and North Dakota, and northwestern Minnesota. For the first 500
years, drainage was southward through the Minnesota River valley Between 9500
and 9200 years ago, the ice sheet rapidly disintegrated. The over flow drainage
shifted along a route across northern Ontario into the St. Lawrence River valley. The
final drainage of the lake occurred about 7,700 years ago north into Hudson bay.
Only remnant Lakes remaining are Lake Winnipeg, Lake Winnipegosis, Lake of The
Woods, Red Lake and Lake Manitoba
Watersheds were delineated into scale
size using a hierarchical system based
on surface hydrological features and
only synonymous when their
boundaries include the source water
surface water to a single defined outlet
point.
Land Type In Our Watershed
Most lands within our watershed are not highly
erodible and are well to moderately well-suited to
agricultural use.
Wetlands (45%)
Open Water (24%)
Forest (20%)
Agriculture (12%)
Features
Geophysical & Hydrological
Extensive areas lie to the northwest, south and east of
the open water Red lake. This area has a thick layer of
decaying plant material that soaks up water and
commonly are referred to as bogs. They are full of
biodiversity & the waters flowing through are stained
by tannin acid leaching from the plant roots causing
the water to be a tea brown color.
Mainly Upper & Lower Red Lake and numerous other
lakes & ponds. About 20 shallow lakes are located
northwest of Lower Red Lake in the Red Lake
Peatlands.
Mixed Forests of conifers, hardwoods & shrubs.
(Sandy soil area.)
Northeast corner of watershed has drainage allowing
crop production. There are 445 farms and about 83%
are less than 500 acres in size. The main crops are small
grains, soybeans & forage. Pasture land is used for beef
& dairy. (Sandy, clay soil)
Society Impact
Red Lake Watershed lies in the eastern edge of the larger Red River Basin its water
flows out from the west outlet on Red Lake by the Red Lake River to the Red River at
Grand Forks, ND. The Upper/Lower Red Lake watershed covers 1,263,678 acres.
Located in Minnesota’s Northern Wetlands and Northern Lakes and Forest Ecoregions
and a potion of the Red River Valley Ecoregion, which holds the Upper and Lower Red
Lakes, the two largest bodies of water within the state. The watershed is by flow
volume and surface area the largest drainage basin of the Red River. Its major
tributaries are the Red Lake River and Grand Marais Creek, which empty directly into
the Red River. Due to the gradual slope (1180 ft to 800 ft) from the west outlet on
Lower Red lake to The Red River at Grand Forks, ND, erosion and runoff of TSS are
minimized.
Our watershed headwaters are from
wetlands and two defined lakes in the
southern end Puposky & Blackduck.
Our drainage watershed tributaries
flow by natural meandering shapes
with deep thallweg bends and shallow
ripple bars to their mouth emptying into
Red Lake. A confluence such as the
south & north streams forming the
Battle River may be found in the
watershed.
“Support for the River Watch Program is provided by the State of Minnesota
Clean Water Fund and the Red River Watershed Management Board.”
Project Addressed the removal of
the last interior dam & 5 major
physical features.
• Shape – Restoring the vegetative
riparian zone and its natural
meandering state.
• Flow – Lowering the water level &
increasing the natural flow to
maintain stability, energy flow,
sediments & nutrients.
• Connectivity – removing the
barrier that disrupted stream flow,
prevented fish migration
upstream to spawn and restored
connection to floodplains carrying
flood flow.
• Water Quality – Addressed
erosion to improve water clarity &
turbidity & non point pollution
runoff.
• Biology – Improved habitat for
aquatic & terrestrial organisms
and increased species diversity.
Water Quality Turbidity
Battle
Mud
Pike
Sandy
Total # data pts
51
49
50
51
21
# of data points that
do not meet Red Lake
Water Quality Class 2B
And 2C waters. (> 25 NTRU)
0
1
1
2
0
0%
1%
2%
3%
0%
FS
FS
FS
FS
FS
Percentage (%) of data points
not meeting standards.
Use support for Aquatic
Life and Recreation:
Fully Supporting: (FS)
than 10%) Green
Partial Supporting: (PS)
– 25%) Yellow
Non Supporting: (NS)
25%) Red
Connectivity Issues
Cities & urban development with a
population of 22,830 create a non point
pollution issue on the watershed. Garbage,
trash, open burning, oil, gas road salts &
hard surface runoff are issues.
Blackduck
Culverts interrupting streamflow &
connections to floodplains.
(<
(10
(>
RLHS RW Program
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fall kick-off participation.
Snow measurements.
River Watch Forum
Monthly monitoring rivers.
Macroinvertebrate analysis
Presentations to community groups.
Articles in the local Red Lake newspaper.
River explores program.
New this upcoming year
• River of dreams outreach education program.
Team members: Cole Spears, Andrew May, Aubrey Graves, Shannon Johnson
Advisor/Teacher:
Mr. Dennis Rud, Asher Kingery