Methods
and Materials:
Our methods for this project was to use the observations recorded by Vilas Beach lifeguards and see how they correlated with the bacteria samples that were recorded from June 2002-August 2002 and June 2003-August 2003. The data that the lifeguards reported were counts of geese, diapers, droppings, and number of swimmers. More specifically, we looked at the lifeguard’s observations of number of swimmers, the rainfall, and the number of geese that were in the area around the beach. We then looked to see if the bacteria levels were higher or lower when there were more or less swimmers, more or less rainfall, or more or less geese in the area. After comparing and analyzing these observations, we came up with the following results.