The Science of Numbers

It is easy to get lost in the numbers that quantify the water bodies in the Red Cedar Watershed: the acreage of lakes, lengths of rivers, phosphorus concentrations, discharge volumes, percentage of land use, and so on and so forth. While the numbers may be overwhelming, each value is critical in understanding the watershed. Similarly, the natural environment is dependent on the interaction of various factors for its success. This summer, I want to bridge the numerical values of the Red Cedar Watershed with the qualitative aspects of a healthy ecosystem to attain phosphorus mitigation in the watershed.

Specifically, my team and I will explore the factors that allow for the successful growth of wild rice, a plant that is native to northern Wisconsin. Wild rice, also known as Manoomin and coincidentally similar sounding to Lake Menomin, is culturally significant and provides a critical habitat for wetland and aquatic life. Wild rice vegetation has been a recent focus of the Great Lakes Indian Wildlife and Fish Commission (GLIWFC) and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) due to its cultural, ecological, and economic potential. My team and I hope to advance these initiatives by identifying sites within the Red Cedar Watershed that can best support the growth of wild rice.

When beginning our research, my team and I explored wetland restoration, which is related to wild rice growth. Wetland restoration involves large construction equipment, a lot of digging, and an even larger amount of environmental disturbance necessary to widen rivers and reconstruct them, in the hopes that the new soil will support wetland vegetation. This is the typical engineering approach for wetland growth, but not the environmentally-sound solution my team and I are seeking. My previous class and work experiences have shown me that engineering projects do not always have the most conscientious design in mind. Often times, designs focus on how human involvement can solve a problem, rather than how environmental resources that are already at hand can be utilized in the solution. Contrary to regular engineering practice, it is important to me in this research to find a method that decreases phosphorus concentrations in the watershed with the least human disturbance as possible. Our focus on the growth of aquatic vegetation, specifically wild rice, will rely on the environment rather than human involvement to thrive.

One common quote of a past professor at my home college is “Engineers use numbers.” While numbers cannot paint the entire picture of a situation, my professor has a point that numbers are an important part of any proposal. Numbers are concrete; they give a meaningful perspective to a current condition. The phosphorus load reduction of water bodies in the Red Cedar Watershed is not a simple calculation, however, that does not mean that numbers cannot be and should not be a part of our solution. The success of wild rice growth will depend on a combination of values that resemble the complex aspects of an aquatic environment. From an engineering mindset, additional numbers related to the actual implementation and design of wild rice beds like size, cost, time, phosphorus removal, and economic gain will be critical to convincing an outside audience that wild rice growth is a feasible solution to improving water quality in the Red Cedar Watershed. The ability to bridge the quantitative with the qualitative, engineering with the natural environmental, is what I hope to achieve this summer.

Lake Menomin at Sunset