Stream Leaders Celebrates Three Decades of Inspiring Students

About 15 years ago, I first participated in CRWC’s 30-year-old Stream Leaders program as a middle school student. That experience influenced my career trajectory and today, I’m helping to educate another new generation of science enthusiasts.

I went on to earn a degree in environmental science from Oakland University and today I’m CRWC’s education and stewardship manager. In this role, I lead the program team that coordinates CRWC's education and stewardship programs and events.

I also develop new programs and manages CRWC’s service contracts related to partner communities’ stormwater education compliance permits. It was the first time I realized that I don’t need to go up north to do environmental science. I realized that I could do science in my own backyard.

The goal of Stream Leaders is to raise young people’s awareness about the importance of local water quality and to cultivate a connection to the Great Lakes. The program provides middle and high school students with hands-on experience in water quality monitoring, data interpretation, and citizen action.

In 2024, 1,639 students from 14 schools participated in Stream Leaders along with 24 teachers and mentors. They completed water quality monitoring at 15 sites in Oakland and Macomb counties. Specifically, Stream Leaders students analyze water samples for dissolved oxygen, nutrients, pH, temperature, and other chemical constituents; evaluate the health of stream habitats and aquatic biological communities; inventory physical stream- side conditions and land uses that may affect water quality; catalog and collect river, lake and beach debris, restore degraded habitats, and make community presentations.

So far in 2025, Stream Leaders has introduced one new school and welcomed back another school that hadn’t participated since before the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, many new teachers are participating for the first time, and still other schools may join as new participants in fall 2025.

And for the first time ever, robotics will be incorporated into the Stream Leaders program this year. New Haven Middle School’s robotics program will work with Stream Leaders this fall to use robots to complete water quality testing.

The always-popular salmon release program also returned to Stream Leaders in May. Students at two separate schools raised salmon in the classroom and released them into the Clinton River.

This spring, approximately 1,500 students participated in Stream Leaders and we expect to add an additional 500 students in the fall.

This November marks the return of the annual Stream Leaders Student Conference. This event, formerly known as Student Congress, has been on hiatus for several years due to COVID-19. Stream Leaders participants can now look forward to sharing their research findings and partaking in group presentations on Nov. 19 at the Macomb Intermediate School District office.