For Friday, Oct. 12, 2018

1 – The state Department of Environmental Quality is seeking input on surface water quality monitoring locations.

It’s part of an ongoing program to preserve and improve water quality in lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands, officials say.

Primary goals of the program are to:

• Assess the status and condition of state waters
• Determine whether water quality standards are being met
• Evaluate the effectiveness of water quality protection programs AND
• Identify new and emerging water quality problems.

Recommendations for monitoring locations in 2019 are being accepted until Oct. 24 via an online request form.

The state plans to target most of its monitoring resources to watersheds highlighted in a Basin Year 1 watersheds map, which includes Saginaw.

2 – Michigan is looking for people and groups to serve as Adopt-a-Park volunteers.

Officials say the program gives volunteers an opportunity to support the natural heritage of the Michigan state park system.

Volunteers wishing to adopt a state park can choose from tasks such as:

• Spring cleanups
• Environmental activities
• Accessibility projects
• Special Events
• Park Maintenance and development
• Public information and assistance AND
• Training.

Those wishing to Adopt-a-Park must submit an application to the park supervisor of the park they wish to adopt.

More information on Michigan’s Adopt-a-Park program is available online at Michigan.gov.

3 – Tri City Brewing in Bay City is among those participating in a national forests campaign.

This month, The Nature Conservancy and breweries across the U.S. are celebrating the link between healthy forests and beer’s main ingredient: water. The month-long awareness campaign is called OktoberForest.

Michigan leads the country with the most breweries participating – 35 out of more than 150 nationwide. 

Healthy forests play in filtering water, beer’s main ingredient. This is the third year of the conservancy’s OktoberForest campaign, with breweries in more than half the United States participating.

Breweries are participating by:

1. Hosting OktoberForest trivia nights and other informational events;
2. Sharing educational coasters, posters, and table toppers;
3. Promoting OktoberForest through social media;
4. Offering donations to help forest and water conservation efforts in each brewery’s home state.

More information is online at OktoberForest.org. That’s Oktober with a K, Forest dot org.

– Mr. Great Lakes is heard Friday mornings in Bay City, Michigan, on Delta College Q-90.1 FM NPR. Follow @jeffkart on Twitter #MrGreatLakes