October 31, 2024
Features | Herald-News
Features

Two-person team at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington monitor water

Volunteers Cathy Dobbs and Gail Pyndus (at microscope) look closely to identify a stonefly, which is an invertebrate that is an indicator of clean water. Dobbs and Pyndus are a two-person team that gets together twice every month from spring and into the fall. Both juggle their involvement with family and other responsibilities – Dobbs works full-time as a professor at Joliet Junior College and Pyndus is very involved in Plants of Concern monitoring, archaeological explorations and much more on the Midewin. There are other teams of volunteers that monitor stream water quality on the Midewin just like Dobbs and Pyndus. They pull invertebrates for sampling from nine sites on four streams: (1) four sites at Prairie Creek; (2) two sites at Jackson Creek; (3) two sites at Grant Creek; and (4) one site at Jordan Creek. Some of the best samples come from rockier areas at the sites, where there tends to be more of a "riffle" action that provides more oxygen.

Volunteers Cathy Dobbs and Gail Pyndus (at microscope) look closely to identify a stonefly, which is an invertebrate that is an indicator of clean water. Dobbs and Pyndus are a two-person team that gets together twice every month from spring and into the fall. Both juggle their involvement with family and other responsibilities – Dobbs works full-time as a professor at Joliet Junior College and Pyndus is very involved in Plants of Concern monitoring, archaeological explorations and much more on the Midewin. There are other teams of volunteers that monitor stream water quality on the Midewin just like Dobbs and Pyndus. They pull invertebrates for sampling from nine sites on four streams: (1) four sites at Prairie Creek; (2) two sites at Jackson Creek; (3) two sites at Grant Creek; and (4) one site at Jordan Creek. Some of the best samples come from rockier areas at the sites, where there tends to be more of a "riffle" action that provides more oxygen.

Volunteers Cathy Dobbs and Gail Pyndus are a two-person team that gets together twice every month from spring and into the fall to monitor stream water quality at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

Both juggle their involvement with family and other responsibilities – Dobbs works full-time as a professor at Joliet Junior College and Pyndus is very involved in Plants of Concern monitoring, archaeological explorations and much more on the Midewin.

There are other teams of volunteers that monitor stream water quality on the Midewin just like Dobbs and Pyndus.

They pull invertebrates for sampling from nine sites on four streams: (1) four sites at Prairie Creek; (2) two sites at Jackson Creek; (3) two sites at Grant Creek; and (4) one site at Jordan Creek.

Some of the best samples come from rockier areas at the sites, where there tends to be more of a "riffle" action that provides more oxygen.

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