What we got out of a day spent in the creek
- col-karen-gotter
- July 28, 2023
- 479
A summer day spent in the creek is like a time machine: The combination of the feel of cool water in warm sunlight and the sense of excitement brought on as you uncover what’s under this rock, or in that deep hole, or around that next bend brings back powerful memories of days gone by. Those feelings seem stronger as time goes by, layering nostalgia on top of a continued sense of wonder anytime I get the chance to play in the water.
Lucky for me, playing in the water is part of the job description — especially if paired with some sort of educational and environmentally beneficial reasons too. And that’s what our office got to do on a perfect summer day the first week of July. A slew of investigators descended on Rush Run to explore how it’s developing a year after restoration work wrapped up.
The aquatic life numbers taken in September 2020, prior to construction, really weren’t bad: Rush Run is less developed than many of the small watersheds in Northeastern Ohio and even in Holmes County. Ohio EPA sampled fish and macroinvertebrate (the aquatic life phase of many of our insect species, which tell a lot about water quality) diversity, as well as conducted a physical assessment of the stream channel itself. While the riparian corridor is moderately intact, straightening the stream, human and livestock impacts degraded its stability and water-quality classification. Constant erosion of its sandy banks meant the stream channel would not support high numbers of the most sensitive species.
Despite that, during the preconstruction sampling, out of 64 different macroinvertebrate species collected, 11 were classified as sensitive to pollution, and only five were considered pollution tolerant. They even found one that is usually associated with cold-water habitat. Over time, as this project site matures, we should see an increase in the critters that indicate sensitive species will thrive in this area.
The bug team collected jars full of examples of the insects they found and will process the data this winter, once they are done with field work. While we don’t have exact numbers, we found plentiful caddisflies and mayflies — a good sign that our creek has the right habitat for sensitive species to re-establish. We learned large crawdads are good stream-health indicators too, after finding several to the delight of the younger members of our sampling crew.
The “professionals” were accompanied by a contingent of curious helpers from our office and the neighborhood — joining in the work were elementary, middle and high school students, friends and family members of our office. We also hosted several EPA interns who were honing their in-field sampling skills on our project. We were even joined by the young son of the farmer where the project site was located and the upstream landowners with their grandchildren, who were all amazed at what was coming out of their little creek.
The fish sampling was what really got everyone’s attention: After running a light electrical current into the water, the stunned minnows were collected for sorting. The team running this was “shocked” by the numbers: From a roughly 500-foot stretch of stream, we collected over 4,300 fish that were then hand-sorted — and counted — by species.
This is the stream where we found our beloved yellow bullhead catfish prior to the restoration. This time we found a couple of his brethren, along with a great assortment of stonerollers, creek chubs, shiners, darters, dace, sculpins and suckers, which, despite the name, are great indicator species.
While we won’t know the longer-term effects of the efforts invested at this location for years to come, evidence is suggesting this stream is nurturing populations of wildlife that are the backbone of the Killbuck’s ecosystem. Instead of canaries in coal mines, we have fish and insects telling us we are headed in the right direction.
Let’s do what we can to bring all the creeks in Holmes County back to the point where they provide happy memories for us humans and a healthy home for those that must live in, on and around our water.
Karen Gotter of the Holmes Soil and Water Conservation District is watershed coordinator for Killbuck Creek. She can be called at 330-674-2811 ext. 3.