Rocky Bottom Sampling @ Mira Creek- Say What?

Say What? That is exactly what I said when a friend up the road called and asked if we wanted to help with a Rocky Bottom Sampling of Mira Creek. Mira Creek runs right thru our property so I was pretty interested. Come to find out it is a really cool activity that I am very glad I said yes too. The organization that houses and manages the data collected is called The Izaak Walton League. This League is part of the Save Our Streams (SOS) program teaches you how to check water quality in local creeks and streams. You can share your findings with the League, and this helps them get a clear picture of water quality across the country. This is the very first step in helping them come up with water quality solutions that work. They will also help you restore your stream to good health, if needed. This league was founded in 1922, with a Mission to conserve, restore, and promote the sustainable use and enjoyment of our natural resources, including soil, air, woods, waters, and wildlife. Their current priority clean water activities include engaging youth in the outdoors, cleaning up nonpoint source pollution, and halting the spread of invasive species. They are also involved in ensuring farm programs are linked to common-sense conservation practices that protect our soil and water quality, and they are busy Promoting clean and renewable energies that power our homes, businesses and cars.

So We met at the creek on Feb 25th. There were probably 10 folks that showed up. There were Master Naturalists, Master Wildlife Conservationists, Students and then there was ME! The location had already been scoped out and decided on before we met. I also found out that this exact spot gets monitored every year so any changes of the water quality can be accurately tracked. The first thing they did was setup their tables and accessories. There were nets , buckets, ice trys and papers with pictures of bugs, a couple of spray bottles, oh and several tweezers and a big magnifying lense.

A finely meshed net with poles on each side was used to collect the macroinvertebrates (critters) from the stream. This part of the creek had fast-moving water. The depth has to be 3 to 12 inches with cobble sized stones that range 2 to 10 inches, or larger. The net was placed in the creek, stretching the poles across and placing some rocks on the net down in the streambed , while someone was holding it. Another volunteer got into the creek 3 feet upstream from the net and stirred up the water with his feet. He picked up rocks and rubbed them off to force any critters downstream into the net. Now I Know there are special League technical terms for all of this, but this is my account of what happened 😊

This all transpired within 1 minute and the net was scooped out, bottom up first, so not to lose a single fly larvae. I didn’t know until now that there was a magic number of critters needed, to make this a valid test, and that was 200.
The net was brought and placed on the white table which made it much easier to see all the critters.

Any large ones that could crawl away were counted, logged and quickly returned to the water. This crayfish was happy to go back to the creek.

All the other insects were picked up with tweezers and placed in the ice trays that were filled with creek water. One tray had insects with legs and that were moving, and the other tray had larvae, worms, etc.

As each person would find a critter they would identify by calling out the name and quantity and a Lady would log it on the official critter form. They called out stoneflies, mayflies, midges, creek pennies, worms, crayfish, I don't know what all. I couldn't believe this whole net of critters was pulled up in a minute.

The spray bottles were used to spritz the nets because they dry out. This also causes the organisms to move, and you wouldn’t believe what was still laying there. Any organism that moves gets counted. I thought we were done 3 times and then they would spray and get way down close to the debris with a magnifying lens, and there would be more organisms! Amazing!

We ended up with 243 critters! The next day I received a copy of the Creek’s Multimetric Index Score and it was 12. The Acceptable Ecological Condition are 9-12. Last year on this same date 423 critters were collected and the Ecological Condition was an 11.

I am happy our little creek is in good shape! I wish I didn’t know exactly what all was in there. I like to sit in the creek in the summer. Now I am gonna need a chair, not a rock 😊

You can find all the information about this organization here at this website:
http://www.iwla.org/conservation/water/save-our-streams

You can download a critter sheet if you wanted to do this with your kids or grand kids. I'm thinking I will be doing this for sure with my nephew who Loves the creek. I hope you enjoyed hearing about our little Mira Creek.
Kimberly