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Monitoring data show the upstream portion of Traver Creek supports a diverse aquatic community, while the downstream portion near the creek's mouth shows signs of degradation, including a more pollution-tolerant aquatic insect community.
Source: Huron River Watershed Council |
About Traver Creekshed
The headwaters of Traver Creek are in agricultural lands north of the US 23/M14 interchange. It flows south near several residential subdivisions, under Plymouth Road, and through the Island Drive apartment complex. Traver Creek joins the Huron River just upstream of Island Park. The rate of residential growth within Traver Creek’s seven square mile watershed has accelerated in the last decade.
State of Our Environment
HWRC volunteers monitor two sites on Traver Creek. The Dhu Varren Road site is located furthest upstream and supports a healthy and diverse insect community, while the site at Broadway Avenue in poor condition. Fortunately, it appears that problems associated with impervious development and flashy flows do not start accumulating until lower in the Traver Creek watershed.
Traver Creek has a greater insect diversity than many other creeks within the area, but that diversity is distributed in an unusual way. The greater numbers and variety would normally be expected downstream where habitat is better and the stream is larger, but instead it is the upstream portion that is more biologically diverse, and populations are smaller downstream in the more urbanized portion of the stream. The specific cause of the degradation has not yet been determined, but much more urban development is planned for the upper portions of Traver creekshed and the negative impacts of development will likely manifest upstream as well.
For more information
Find detailed information on Adopt-a-Stream monitoring sites in Traver Creekshed below.
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Updated December 1, 2009