<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Nate 1.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 187px; float: right; " />Au Sable&#39;s new water quality monitoring program on the Manistee River as made a Citizen Science believer out of me. A week ago, I had the privilege of training with a few fellow interns and some community members to participate in the Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps) macroinvertebrate collection program. These people came for a variety of reasons, but their unifying characteristics were curiosity and a passion for a place. These folks got up early, stayed awake for training on aquatic insects, and then trouped to and through numerous streams in chilly, rainy weather.</p>
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	As a person who has worked in quite a few field settings something stuck out to me about these scientists: nobody complained. In my coursework and professionally, it has been commonplace to gripe about poor weather, or bugs, or whatever was less than ideal. However even after hours of rain, an accidental swim, and fierce winds nobody voiced their displeasure. At the end of the day, we had to coax them to head in for the day.&nbsp;</p>
