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.

 H1: Levels of biodiversity will be lower around urban areas rather than agricultural areas due to harmful city runoff.  H2:Construction around urban areas alters the habitat and flow of the river.  H3: Chemical runoff from the watershed’s massive agricultural area causes nutrient enrichment.

Habitat and Flow Alterations

Nutrient Enrichment in Agricultural Vs. Urban Area

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.

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. 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. Urban and Suburban (Information and Pictures taken from )

Thank you to: *The counselors~ Lori Summers, Fen Lewis, Virginie Bouchard, Paula Williams, and especially our leaders, Sharon Schraegle and Shannon Schraegle. The coordinators~ Sue Brown and Elaine Landwehr The rest of the OSC staff~ Steve Gordon, Leslie Southern, Kathryn Kelley, and Barbara Woodall The naturalists~ Carrie, Elisse, Tim, and Greg

The video graphers~ Jason and Kevin The speakers~ Kathy White, Bettina Bair, Sushma Joshi, Charlotte Elster, Gabrielle Gordon, Debra Haley, Maria Palazzi, and Kay Howell The staff at OSU Anyone 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.