The overall health of the Mullet River is okay due to factors like biological oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. Dissolved oxygen levels vary throughout the day, with higher levels early in the morning when the sun helps algae produce oxygen through photosynthesis. Later in the day, as the river warms, it cannot hold as much oxygen. The biological oxygen demand also increases and dissolved oxygen decreases, making it difficult for many fish to survive. The riparian zone along the river could be improved by planting more native plants to help filter runoff. A proposed plan includes dredging sediment, removing dams to increase flow and oxygenation, and implementing bayscaping with native plants along the riparian zone to further

1. Sage W., Myah P., Erik O., Emma G.

2. Overall Health of the Mullet River
The overall health of the river is okay because of some contributing
factors like Biological Oxygen Demand, Dissolved Oxygen, and
Temperature. The dissolved oxygen levels can get very
high, along with very low. Early in the morning, we get high
results because it is very bright from the sun (helping algae
create oxygen with photosynthesis), but the temperature of the
river hasn’t increased yet. The cold temperature of the river
allows it to hold more oxygen, leading to higher dissolved oxygen
levels. At this time, the Biological oxygen demand percent is very
low because there is so much oxygen, and no organisms that use
that much oxygen. But then later in the day when the river
temperature warms up, the river can’t hold as much oxygen as
when it was cold. Then the biological oxygen demand percent
goes up and the dissolved oxygen level goes down which doesn’t
allow most fish to live there because they need more oxygen.

3. Riparian Health
 The riparian zone isn’t very big on both sides of the river at
our site
 This results in little toxins and fertilizers being sifted out of
the run- off water
 The riparian zone could be improved and will be in our
plan
 The plants and trees in the riparian zone are mostly native
to this part of Wisconsin so that helps it absorb more
toxins from getting in the river because native plants are
better for riparian zones.
 Our riparian zone is relatively healthy but could use some
work.

4. Organisms at site 7
 We found leeches, bloodworms, and pouch snails who are all
very tolerant to pollutants and don’t need much oxygen.
 We also found lots of orb and gilled snails along with scuds
who are semi- tolerant of pollutants who still don’t need much
oxygen
 Lastly we found a couple dragonfly larva and damselfly larvae
who are semi- sensitive to pollutants
 Since we only found these organisms at this site (no organisms
that are sensitive to pollutants like stonefly larva), we know
that only these organisms can survive here because of the
polluted and low oxygen in the water. Other organisms like
trout can’t live here because of these reasons.
 This is a good way to see the health of the river

5. Temperature
The temperature of the river can affect the
amount of oxygen in the river because the molecules
move less when they are cold, and they move more
when they are warm. When they move less, they are
more tightly packed, leaving more room for oxygen.
This is the opposite for warm water. The temperature
of the river was around 19.5 degrees Celsius on average,
and that would mean the oxygen would be low
because the warmer temperature of the river isn’t
leaving room for oxygen.

6. Biological Oxygen Demand
 The BOD is the amount of oxygen organisms in the
river need to survive compared to the amount of
oxygen that is in the river. When we tested for BOD, we
found that 100% of the oxygen in the river was being
used. This isn’t good because that means that all of the
oxygen is being used, so there isn’t more oxygen for
more organisms to grow and survive. This may be due
to the fact that the season we are in doesn’t allow for
much oxygen in the water. It may also be due to the
fact that the river has a warm temperature, which leads
to not having room for oxygen molecules. The
biological oxygen demand is not good.

7. Dissolved Oxygen Levels
 Dissolved Oxygen: The level of oxygen molecules in the water
 Where it comes from: photosynthesis of aquatic pants, and wind and
waves
 The Test: we take a sample of river water and put 20ml of it in
a cup. Then we take an ampoule and beak the tip in the
water and whatever color the water turns
determines the amount of oxygen in the
water by looking at the chart

8. Dissolved Oxygen Levels Cont.
 0-89% is not healthy, there is not enough oxygen to
keep all life stable, and that can be from over
population of animals, or under population of plants.
 90-99% is a healthy range, it is a good balance between
consumption and production
 100+ means there’s too many plants and not enough
fish using the oxygen, which is also unhealthy because
that leads to eutrophication
Our tests came back with varying results, and since the river
needs to provide for organisms the entire time (when it
oxygen levels are high and low), we have to go with the
lowest result which was 45%

9. Dredge, take out Dams and
Bayscape
 First we need to plug springs, then dredge out the
sediment from the bottom of the river to make river
rocky bottom
 Then we plan to take out all of the dams through the
river to make the water flow faster and colder
 We also want to Bayscape all of the new land created
from the lake draining and where the river got skinnier
to help absorb some of the harmful bacteria and toxins
from leeching into the river
 Bayscape with native plants for highest efficiency of
taking out toxins and such

10. Bayscaping
 Planting native plants on sides of river in riparrian zone that
were originally here before people reconstructed the sides of the
river
 BayScaping is a low-cost alternative to traditional landscaping
that utilizes turf grass and ornamental plants that need much
less much less maintenance and cost than a grass lawn,
 BayScaping:
 can eliminate the need for mowing, pruning, irrigation and
fertilization
 is 50-80% less costly than conventional landscapes
 has a better survival rate than turf and ornamental plants
 is creative, unique and aesthetically pleasing
 Main reason for Bayscaping is to improve riparrian zone to keep
toxins and bacteria out of the river

11. Pros of that plan
 The bottom of the river will be cleaned of all the muck from
dredging
 Stop eutrophication because of the fast flowing water
 It will be deeper which will allow us to swim in it
 Better view of a waterfall instead of the dam
 The river will thin and there’ll be more space for a riparian
zone, improving the health of the river
 It will be good for fishing because it will have more oxygen
 The people living on the lake wouldn’t lose land for bayscaping
because the bayscaping would only occur in the place where the
lake used to be
 Bayscaping looks really good
 It is better to have a skinny lake that you can swim in than a
river/ that is really wide, stinky, mucky, and ugly that you can’t
do anything with

12. Cons with back- up
Cons Back- up
People that live on the lake would lose
property value because they don’t live next
to the lake anymore
They wouldn’t lose to much value because there
isn’t very much value in living next to a really
crappy lake. They would also still live next to a
river, it would just be smaller. In Traverse City
Michigan, they took out four dams and the
property value decreased by one percent every
year along the ex- lake. The values could increase
too.
It would be really expensive to do our plan
($7 million for dredging, $60,000 for taking
out dams, and $50, 000 for getting all of the
Bayscaping done).
After a survey of the city, the results came
back saying that people really don’t care how
much it costs. The people liked dredging
the most and that was the most expensive.
The people would have to walk a while to get
to their river instead of living right next to a
lake.
They are getting exercise and they are
walking along a path through a Bayscaping
area that is really pretty and nice to look at.
It will take time to dredge and time for the
plants in the Bayscape area to grow.
It’s only one year every 50 years for a better river
and you have to start somewhere with the

13. Lake Leota
 The people of Evansville wanted to dredge up their
lake because the sediment had built up a lot
 Lake Leota used to look like the Mullet Lake before
Lake Leota was dredged
 After Lake Leota had been dredged, the turbidity and
overall health of the lake got better
 If we dredge the Mullet Lake and river, the lake and
river will become like Lake Leota

14. Bayscaping in Casco Bay
 In the 1980’s the turbidity of the water was very poor
because of all of the pollutants from run- off that
wasn’t taken out from the water because of their bad
ripperarian zone
 Then in the 1990’s they introduced Bayscaping there
and now the bay is really clear and the health has
improved greatly because the ripperarian zone
absorbed more pollutants
 Since it worked for Casco Bay I think it could work
here too.

15. Work Cited Page
 Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center. (n.d.).
Bayscaping With Native Plants. Retrieved June 3, 2013, from Virginia
Tech Invent The Future: http://www.arec.vaes.vt.edu/hampton-
roads/gardens/bayscape-garden/index.html
 Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (2013, May 24). Bayscape. Retrieved
June 3, 2013, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayscape
 Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (2013, May 31). Eutrophication.
Retrieved June 3, 2013, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication
 The District Department of Envionment. RiverSmart Homes-
BayScaping. 1 May 2013 <http://green.dc.gov/service/riversmart-
homes-bayscaping>.
 All DownStream. Dam Removal and Waterfront Property on the
Boardman River. 4 January 2011. 1 May 2013
<http://alldownstream.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/dam-removal-and-
waterfront-property-on-the-boardman-river-traverse-city-mi/>.