A beautiful day for some water quality testing!

On Tuesday we met with the Environmental Science students from HPHS for our second session. We enjoyed the sunshine while testing the water quality of the ravines and lake. We were fortunate enough to have Dr. Charles Shabica of Shabica & Associates and Josh Arrigoni, a Field Ecologist with the Conservation Land Stewardship to join us and share their knowledge and efforts in ravine restoration.

Dr. Charlie Shabica of Shabica & Associates has students look at the ravine formations

Students measure flow of the stream, first by measuring and timing the speed a ball travels...

Then by using a velocity meter 

Josh Arrigoni of Conservation Land Stewardship talking to a group of students about the phase II stream restoration and how his organization helps improve water quality 

Checking the turbidity of the water: measuring clarity and determining the level of  suspended solids

Jim Tingey of Trout Unlimited testing the pH levels in Lake Michigan 

Wrapping up a great day with a group discussion at the lakefront 

Back row from left: Rebecca Grill, Natural Areas Manager of the Park District of Highland Park,  Annie Mantynband of PDHP, Josh Arrigoni, Field Ecologist at Conservation Land Stewardship, Jim Tingey of Trout Unlimited, Dr. Charles Shabica of Shabica & Associates. Front row from left: Jessica Soto of Heller Nature Center and Liz Ettelson of PDHP.

Thanks again to everyone who came out and got their boots wet today! Check in soon, we will be posting more about how to interpret your findings from today and what an ideal ecosystem for fish spawning should look like. Thanks to the students for posting your results and impressions of the day!

We are looking forward to our next session and will hopefully see some fish then!