Speaking of Rivers

"He sends his books down the river,
one by one they slip away, each word turning wild."
--Micheal Delp, The Mad Angler

Late winter the Watershed Center hosted Micheal Delp as a featured poet. He is an instructor at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and though I don't know him well, I know his rivers and fish and can feel much of this energy of admiration for the rushing waters--the fluidity of spirit-- inherent in the rhythms of river life. What feels urgent and rushed, bears the urgency of only necessity and a baptism in the awakening of the dynamic flow of life.

Her Mother Nature

By fall our troop began monitoring Lee Creek on Stony Point. The setting was tranquil and free of traffic, except for the occasional neighbor inquiring into our suspicious behavior. After all, we were up to our hips in waders and boots and the children were tromping and exploring. This time through piles of leaf litter and debris, the fate of a fall storm and the usual autumnal offerings.

Here Jill is transferring some of the netted findings onto a shallow white tray which makes identification easier. And you may be wondering if she's mixing up a couple of stonefly cocktails on the rocks, but actually, we used the ice cube trays to separate our critters into their own species-specific compartments.

Knee Deep in Caddisflies

Adeyo and I searching for caddisfly larva near the TART Trail intersection on site #2 of Brewery Creek. Unlike the water at the bay which was a little murky due to heavy use, the upstream life here was relatively free to live in peace and thrive. One of the TART bridges crosses the creek here and despite the heavy traffic above, I don't think many people take the time explore the stream below. Which is nice, because the footings of the bridge were coated in the caddisfly cases that they had spun using their own silky threads and the tiny pebbles of quartz settled on the bottom of the stream bed. We thought some of the cases even looked like stained-glass window panes.

http://gtbay.org

Mostly Work and Mostly Play

Jill, Sijoula and Adeo at the mouth of Brewery Creek, sifting through our captures. Collected in long nets, the team studies the mucky water for an macro-invertebrate life.

This collection in particular had quite a few skuds, which are easy to see. Though skuds do not always represent the elite of the water world, we were happy to find life teeming near Grand Traverse Bay.

Waders and Nets and Skuds, Oh My!

Stream monitoring in solitude is something I would and could do, but when my friend Jill arrived at Elmwood Park last spring with her two tough and earthy charges, I was elated. My own inner biologist is not so pure as the passion and joy of two children foraging a stream for life.

Though they were new to monitoring, at five and nine, Sijoula and Adeyo were already fluent at fun and exploration. Jumping in, the mucky murk of creek waters were stirred up in no time and sorters, Jill and I, were already heavily behind. What they first discovered: buckets of skuds.

The children were attracted to the skuds because they look a little like miniature shrimp and at our first site, near the mouth of the creek, they were plentiful. Other beauties, (if one can refer to anything larval as beautiful) were scarce. Looking over the criteria for the stream monitoring, we began to fear that our portion of the stream was not healthy. The children, upon observing the absence of caddisfly (which they had never seen) and other first class indicators, stretched and reached and dug more. Though the river banks were bright and the waters silty, but seemingly clear, we searched for signs. Together, our team became engaged in, not only the idea of health, but the desire for it. Arms fatigued by heavy nets and the children decided to rest...

While the nets were draining and buckets were being sifted, the children relaxed by exploring on their own. First, they discovered a frog, named him, and then tried to claim him as their pet. Luckily, our stomachs had minds of their own, and the merits of lunch soon overshadowed the importance of fighting for the frog (plus, I bartered an afternoon with my dog.)

Stream Monitorings Past

Monitoring streams is important work! Sijoula gathers the macro-invertebrate that have been scooped from the stream and strained for easy viewing. She then sorts the "bugs" into a container which will be analyzed and recorded by biologists. Her work will help make understanding the health of the stream--the water in our region--possible.