Adopt-A-Stream!

Today's blog is brought to you by Devin, a homeschooled 5th grade student who will be joining HoneyFern when we monitor our adopted stream.

November 8, 2011 was our first day at Olley Creek. (we are starting our year-long Adopt-a-Stream commitment)

(The day was clear and beautiful, sunny blue skies. The last fall-feeling day before a rainstorm.)

We had two guides to teach us how to test Olley Creek's water - Rachel and Mike.

(That's Mike's shirt. He watched while Rachel did most of the demonstrating!)

We learned how to test the air, water, pollution, conductivity (electricity), dissolved oxygen, and pH.

On Olley there is thick vegetation, and most of it serves as food for birds, deer, etc.  Today we saw a hawk and a bunny, and nearby we found deer prints. (We also found wood that had been gnawed by a beaver, and tracks that looked like a river otter.)

There are lots of teeny, tiny fish that are probably tadpoles, so there will be frogs in Olley Creek (which we will learn how to keep track of in the spring when we train for biological monitoring)!  Olley has good (varied and dense) vegetation, wildlife, and all of our tests turned out well. (We are establishing a baseline of data so we can monitor changes over the year; when we watch over the creek we are able to see any changes that could indicate trouble occur). 

P.S. Adopt-A-Stream rules!!!!!
P.P.S. I think everyone should do this.