Baird Creek environmental concerns

GREEN BAY - The Baird Creek Parkway is a pristine stretch of land left untouched by the commercial and residential developments that surround it on Green Bay's east side.

Crystal Osman/Baird Creek Preservation Foundation: It's right in the city, a big park, for people to use trails and nature right in their backyard.

Baird Creek is the central feature that flows through the property, but it can't escape increasing environmental concerns.

"A lot of erosion mostly due to higher water flow during storm events," said Kevin Hendricksen, a biology teacher at Green Bay Preble High School.

Hendricksen along with other biology teachers and interested students have taken part in monitoring Baird Creek's water quality.

Since 2002, they've seen the Fantail darter fish disappear.

"We're not finding it anymore and that's one sign the water quality has gone down a bit," he said.

With new development on the east side of Green Bay, more and more of the once open land is being paved over. And that is creating more runoff that is finding its way into Baird Creek.

"More business, more people, more pollution," stated Hendricksen.

The non-profit Baird Creek Preservation Foundation is working to cleanup and enhance the property to fend off environmental contamination.

"We actually try to acquire more property to bring into the park to expand," said Crystal Osman.

Even with regulations in place designed to keep contaminants out, Baird Creek occasionally suffers from unforeseen environmental accidents--like the sewage overflow of more than one million gallons earlier this month into the lower part of the creek--that's enough sewage to fill nearly two Olympic sized swimming pools.

Gary Kincaid with the DNR said they worked to pump out some of the sewage, but nature will have to take its course on the rest.

While nature takes its course in cleaning up the sewage, those with the preservation foundation just hope nature here will get the chance to survive along the many miles of Baird Creek for many generations to come.