Worth A Dam was the first stop yesterday in the garden wildlife display of the Nature and optics fair at Cornerstone, Sonoma. We met people who had attended my talk at Madrone Audubon, or Valley of the Moon and knew all about why beavers were good for creeks, people who had followed the story on the news, or even come to Martinez to see them, and people who were on vacation from their water-side property in Idaho, Colorado, New York and Maine that couldn’t wait to get home and try installing a flow device on their land to manage beaver activity! Let’s just say it was a good day and well spent. Cheryl, Jon, Lory and Ron were all on hand to make things run smoothly and we invited many new folks to this years beaver festival.
Apparently they could of used at the waterside at Powdermill Creek in Michigan this week. I’ll explain:
Bessemer biology class: A river runs through it
BESSEMER — Recently, biology students at the A.D. Johnston High School in Bessemer spent the morning learning about watersheds and forestry while at Powdermill Creek.
The annual event exposes students to wildlife and fisheries biology in addition to forest ecology and succession.
According to biology teacher Dave Rowe, “the partnership that has developed between the school, the U.S. Forest Service, private businesses and community members has really paid big dividends. When my students see the practical application of what we talk about in the classroom in a real world setting, they see biology from a new perspective.”
So far so good. Students going down to the creek to learn biology from the outside. US Forest service teaching how it all fits together. What’s not to like?
“Now, the area that we sample favors game species such as brook trout because of the cold, fast moving water and the ample shade and undercut banks,” he said. “Ten years ago this same area was a meadow due to the activity of beavers and the game species such as brook trout were less common and fish such as creek chubs, black nosed dace and white suckers were more common.”
Yes, another cheerful article of rangers teaching children that the fishing is better now that we got rid of all those ICKY BEAVERS. Because all brook trout really need is fast moving water. They don’t actually need rich insect communities to eat inside that water- just the water itself. And when the fast water scours all the invertibrate-sustaining sediment off the bottom of the pond and makes over cut banks they couldn’t be happier because they need the shade. Never mind that deep pools near beaver dams cool temperatures through hyporheic exchange and have very complex insect populations for fish to enjoy and fatten while they eat other fish. Its not like fishermen like to catch larger fish, right?
Well, we worked hard yesterday, but obviously we have a lot more work to do.
