Stream Searches

What Helps & What Hurts a Stream




Welcome to the Bean! 

                             
The Bean/Tiffin Watershed Coalition is a group of residents, farmers, lake and stream property owners, Hillsdale USDA-NRCS, local government representatives, non-profit organizations -- all concerned with protection of the streams and lakes of the Bean Creek Watershed in the Lake Erie basin. A largely agricultural watershed, the Bean is unique in southern Michigan with several excellent coldwater tributaries. It also has history of water quality problems in several stream stretches, including erosion and sedimentation, pathogen contamination from failed septic systems, and in the last four years, bacterial contamination from intensive livestock operations. The Coalition is affiliated with the non-profit Community Action Agency of Hillsdale, Lenawee, and Jackson Counties.

Bean Creek has its headwaters near Devil's Lake in lower Michigan. The stream flows south through Michigan to the Tiffin River in Ohio, which joins the Maumee River, entering Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio. The Bean Creek Watershed (sometimes called the Upper Tiffin) includes three small towns, Addison in the north, Hudson halfway downstream, and Morenci at the Ohio border.

The Bean's main tributaries are Branch Creek, St. Joseph Creek, an excellent-quality stream in its headwaters, with numerous mussel species (see short videos of the St. Joseph Creek on YouTube); Lime Creek, which has stretches listed as impaired -- Michigan 303(d) list; Toad Creek and Silver Creek.

Endangered Species in the Bean Creek Watershed
One endangered fish -- the redside dace (Clinostomus elongatus) -- has been documented in the Watershed, once near the Bean's outflow from Devil's Lake, and more recently just north of Hudson. The redside dace is legally protected in Michigan. It requires undisturbed headwaters streams with rocky riffles for spawning and overhanging vegetation for cool water.
redside dace
Redside dace (photo & more information: MNFI)

The endangered salamander mussel (Simpsonaia ambigua) was documented near Morenci in the 1930s -- the Coalition is working for a grant to re-survey its particular habitat, under flat rocks. Several other species of mussels (clams) found in the Watershed are rare – slippershell mussel is Threatened in Michigan, 2 others are of "special concern" in Michigan.
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"Float the Bean" – Sunday, Sept 13, 2009 – Bean Creek Heritage Festival, Hudson (see full page of photos here)
HUDSON – Dozens “Float the Bean” through Hudson – With a lot of shrieking, soaking, rocking, and good times, more than 2 dozen people floated down Bean Creek the last day of the Bean Creek Heritage Festival. The sun was hot, and the water was full of inner tubes, colorful plastic floats of all sorts, wobbly air mattresses, even a double-bed-size air mattress. "Float the Bean" was sponsored by the Bean/Tiffin Watershed Coalition, which provided free root beer floats for all participants, and free maps of Bean Creek and its public parks. Thanks to everyone who floated and helped celebrate Bean Creek on a beautiful day.

floating

"Clean the Bean 2" – Saturday, Aug 22, 2009 (see full page of photos here)
HUDSON – 37 volunteers helped clean up Bean Creek through downtown Hudson on Aug. 22, pulling out a dozen tires, several 55-gallon drums, miscellaneous car parts, and other trash. The cleanup was sponsored by the City of Hudson, in coordination with the Bean/Tiffin Watershed Coalition, through a Michigan Volunteer River, Stream, and Creek Cleanup Grant of $2,125. The Department of Environmental Quality selected eighteen organizations to receive these grants, which are administered by the Great Lakes Commission.

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2008 -- Earth Day, Earth Week at Riverside Natural Area, Morenci. New signs at the road and in the park, donated by the City of Morenci and by the Green Earth Club of Morenci High School (GECKOs) were dedicated during a sunny afternoon, April 24. Students from the High School Math & Science Club conducted a stream search for macroinvertebrates; GECKOs cleaned up the stream and the park. Volunteers with the Bean/Tiffin Watershed Coalition constructed a bench beside Bean Creek.
sign cleanup bench
See more photos from the stream search and cleanup, April 24, 2008

Grants and Studies

Mussel survey of Bean Creek watershed, summer 2004, finds 17 species of freshwater mussels, including 3 species of special concern -- slippershell, round pigtoe, and rainbow mussel. Best sites were in St. Joseph Creek and the main stream of the Bean near Morenci; and poorest sites were in Silver Creek, where no live mussels were found. Volunteers with Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan (ECCSCM) coordinated this survey conducted by aquatic zoologists with the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, MSU.
 
St. Joseph Creek, with flags marking live mussels;slippershell mussel, Threatened in Michigan
For more details, more photos of mussels, a clam trail, big-footed pocketbook mussel, and more! see the mussel survey page. 

"Writing on the Bean" project, 2003-2004, funded by an EPA Environmental Education grant -- The Watershed Coalition worked with 8th graders in a stream search for aquatic insects. Students wrote short pieces about their findings, with selections published in local papers, and all the writings published on this site. See photos and writings from Addison (Oct.3, 2003), Hudson (Sept. 26, 2003), Morenci (April 30, 2004). The grant also funded a map of Bean Creek and its public parks, highlighting native species found there.  Copies of the map and stream search equipment were donated to all participating schools.

Morenci High School Green Earth Club (GECKOs) and Morenci City Council designate Riverside Park along Bean Creek as a Natural Area.  On a planting day May 2, 2004, students begin the restoration project with the planting of local sycamore trees and other native plant seedlings. Bean/Tiffin Watershed Coalition volunteers assist with the planting and on-site construction of two cedar benches by the Bean. See planting day photos, Riverside Natural Area Resolution.

DEQ conducts Bio-Assessment of Bean Watershed streams, June 2003 (see photos). Two tributaries of Bean Creek were added to Michigan's list of impaired waters -- Durfee Creek for low Dissolved Oxygen; and Medina Drain because of poor macroinvertebrate communities, excess nutrients.

STREAM SEARCH COLLECTION in the Bean at Hudson, April 2003  (photos!)

For Great Lakes Basin links, see LINKS.

Bean Creek Watershed in Michigan
     

Watershed Facts (from USDA-NRCS)

  • Total Watershed Acres --- 234,240
    -- 76% is cropped
    -- 12% is wooded
    -- 4% is pasture
    -- 8% is in other land uses
  • Total number of farms --- 1,120
  • Row-cropped acres --- 101,300
  • Approximately 50% of the cropland is rented
  • Number of livestock operations --- 70
  • Topography is rolling to steep north, and gently sloping to flat south
  • Elevation above sea level ranges from 1270 to 780 ft.
  • Soil texture distribution:
    loam -- 53.6%
    sandy loam -- 21.4%
    muck -- 6.5%
    clay loam -- 5.3%
    silty clay loam -- 4.9%
    silty loam -- 4.6%
    loamy sand and sand -- 1.3%
  • There are 18 lakes in the watershed