By Fiona Southers
This month has been incredibly exciting and busy, I have met so many fun and intelligent people this summer spending time doing fish surveys in Gunpowder Creek, being a counselor during our conservation kids camp, kayaking to split rock, setting up a song meter to listen to frogs and birds, tabling at ARI for their Adventure Trek, forest monitoring plots, and doing research on Middle Creek.
We have done multiple fish surveys for Maxwell’s project with the help of Thomas Moore interns, Liz from SD1, Boone County Parks and their interns, Kenton county conservation district, and other people in the environmental field. It took multiple people to use seine nets to trap fish and collect them for identification. On other fish surveying days we electrofished to temporarily stun the fish while the rest of us worked together to collect them in handheld nets. We went through various areas such as riffles, runs, and pools to collect different types of fish. We found Long Eared Sunfish, Bluegill Sunfish, Rock Bass, Largemouth Bass, Bullheaded Catfish, SpotFin shiners, Fan Tailed Darters, and more.
For the first time, I got to be a camp counselor for BCCD’s conservation kid’s camp which lasts for two weeks in June. I created a fun activity for the kids to practice being archaeologists and paleontologists to dig for their own artifacts and fossils. I made four bins with artifacts and fossils in different layers to represent the different geological times and ground layers. I had some of the kids dig through with trowels to find the artifacts/fossils and then a separate group at a different table with water buckets, sifters, and toothbrushes to clean them off and identify whether they believe they are ancient or modern. After they are cleaned off I had the kids separate them into two different buckets for ancient and modern. Overall, I think that the kids enjoyed this activity, but went through it very fast and it took up less time than I expected. Other than this we took the kids to the vernal pool, creek, hiking, and other various activities. My favorite find from leaf camp was what we believe may have been a young red spotted newt and tadpoles that we found with nets!
In between both weeks of camp I kayaked with Maxwell, Mark, and Susan to Split Rock where we will be taking the older students during LEAF academy in July. It was a very pretty day and I got to explore a little of the wetland at Split Rock as well. I found a Southern Leopard Frog and a Spring Peeper just by walking through the grass. We kayaked to Split Rock which is next the mouth of Woolper Creek and it a natural formation along the Ohio River.
During my free time I decided to set up a song meter to record frog/toads along the vernal pool on Earl and Hazel Jones Center. I mounted it on a tree in a popular amphibian area and let it record the sunrise and sunset for a few days. I only heard what I believe are Green Frogs and Cope’s Gray Treefrogs by listening to the files on Kaleidoscope and using USGS frog sound list.
I also got to see a tour of the Center for Mussel Conservation in Frankfort KY where we saw the Mussels and Hellbenders being raised and eventually released! This was great to learn more about Mussels, their importance, and see a hellbender for the first time!
James and I worked a tabling event at ARI which I previously volunteered at and completed a field school with, so it was good to go back to the guard site and see people I know. I also got to talk to many different kinds of people both public visitors and workers from other companies. This was good to gain skills in talking to people about what BCCD does and the importance of conservation. I enjoyed talking with other companies to learn about what they do as well.
Maxwell, James, and I with the help of Thomas Moore interns, have worked on multiple forest monitoring plots where we measure the size and species of trees in a 50 by 50 meter plot with dbh tape. This has helped me learn how to better identify trees and learn what kind of species both native and non-native are present on the property as well as the forest canopy density.
In return we have helped the Thomas Moore Interns and Liz from SD1 with hydromods and macro invertebrate surveys at Middle Creek. Here, we collected macro invertebrates to determine the health of the creek and measures the banks of the creek to keep data for erosion over time.
Finally, I have been working on starting a preliminary watershed plan for Middle Creek by hiking the trails, taking photos, collecting online data, making maps and working on putting it all together in one document for the benefit of the creek and park. I have also been working on a public informative flyer to put on the website that explains the stream restoration that will be happening in Middle Creek and why it is happening. It has been a lot to put together because of how much there is, but I am excited to see how it continues to come together and the benefit that it will have for the local community and the future of Middle Creek.
