Ottawa River Watershed

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Ottawa River Watershed
By Jess Hoerr, Jean Wheasler, and Deborah Van
Camp
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Introduction

• The Ottawa River Watershed is spread out through
  3 counties Hardin, Putnam, and Allen.
• The area of the watershed is mostly forest and
  agricultural.
• The rivers flowing through the Ottawa Watershed
  have many meanders.

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Facts on Ottawa
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Hypotheses

• H1 Levels of biodiversity will be lower around
  urban areas rather than agricultural areas due to
  harmful city runoff.
• H2Construction around urban areas alters the
  habitat and flow of the river.
• H3 Chemical runoff from the watersheds massive
  agricultural area causes nutrient enrichment.

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Data on Hypothesis 1
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Data on Hypothesis 2
Habitat and Flow Alterations
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Data on Hypothesis 3
Nutrient Enrichment in Agricultural Vs. Urban
Area
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Conclusions
Hypothesis 1 We discovered that, in this
instance, our hypothesis was true the
biodiversity was lower in urban areas than in
agricultural areas. Hypothesis 2 This
hypothesis was proven to be pretty much false.
The waterways with habitat and flow alterations
did not have any noticeable relation with the
location of urban areas. However, the alterations
may still be related to construction in smaller
towns or on roads. Hypothesis 3 Our third
hypothesis, we found, was false, with a small
exception agriculture was not a leading cause of
nutrient enrichment in our watershed, but did
contribute to an increase of nutrient levels.
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Ways to Improve Water Quality
Agricultural
Contour strip cropping Various rowcrops and
hay in alternating strips planted side-by-side
can reduce soil loss of about 50 compared to the
same rotation contoured on its own. This practice
is effective in that it provides rotated crops in
different parts of the soil which act to
strengthen the soil characteristics over time by
not continually depleting the resource based on a
monoculture. This process also decreases erosion
and runoff and increases the stability of the
local soil.
Urban and Suburban
Infiltration Trenches These trenches are
shallow, usually three to eight feet deep, and
backfilled with gravel to create underground
reservoirs. Runoff, therefore, is diverted to the
trenches and percolates into the subsoil. Such a
practice effectively removes sediments and
similar particles from storm water runoff. This
practice is commonly used in both commercial and
residential areas.
(Information and Pictures taken from
http//www.gcfn221.osc.edu/ )
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Acknowledgements
Thank you toThe counselorsLori Summers,
Fen Lewis, Virginie Bouchard, Paula Williams, and
especially our leaders, Sharon Schraegle and
Shannon Schraegle.The coordinatorsSue Brown
and Elaine LandwehrThe rest of the OSC
staffSteve Gordon, Leslie Southern, Kathryn
Kelley, and Barbara WoodallThe
naturalistsCarrie, Elisse, Tim, and Greg
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The video graphersJason and KevinThe
speakersKathy White, Bettina Bair, Sushma
Joshi, Charlotte Elster, Gabrielle Gordon, Debra
Haley, Maria Palazzi, and Kay HowellThe staff
at OSUAnyone and everyone else not listed here
who helped make our experience at YWSI a fun and
educational one
Lastly,we thank our audience for their time and
attention.