Streams under study by local students By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Students from high schools in the area pooled their water knowledge Wednesday. The students were participants in the first Lower Fox River Watershed Symposium at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. They're part of a university-sponsored watershed monitoring program. Wednesday's event was the culmination of work done since last July by students at Green Bay Southwest, Luxemburg-Casco, Appleton East and Markesan high schools, each assigned a different area to study. Students reported on various aspects of the ecosystem in the Baird Creek, Apple Creek and lower Fox River area near Omro. The overall program also includes UW-Milwaukee, the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage district, the U.S. Geological Service and the Oneida Nation. On Wednesday, students were updated on the status of "their" study areas, as well as getting additional instruction on sampling and study techniques. For example, they spent the first part of the day working on bird identification, as the study of what birds (and their numbers) are near a creek are indicators of the creek's health. Students also made posters on their study areas and on the measurements taken. Program director Kevin Fermanich, an assistant professor of natural and applied sciences at UWGB, said the study would continue through 2007 with the students' help. "Along with what they collect, we hope they'll use the information to become better decision makers in the future," he said. And how are local streams doing? Fermanich said they are showing the effects of runoff from not only farm fields, but urban growth as well, with streams affected by the amount of water rejected by hard surfaces such as roads and parking lots. "There is a lot of sediment and nutrients coming out of them into the Fox," he said.