Streamside

As I have done for a few years now, I spent the day with Liz Ettelson and Rebecca Grill of Highland Park and several Trout Unlimited members to show and tell High School Seniors taking an Environmental Science class how benthic macroinvertebrate surveys are performed.  Each time I find myself in the field, I kick myself for not doing this more.  And I am always surprised how the Latin names for the bugs come flooding back into memory.  If only I could remember other stuff like I remember my Latin!!

It was misty but warm enough to be outside all day.  It had rained hard during the night, so we did not find a lot of critters as the stream level was still high and flowing overwell, but the ones we did find reinforced our feeling that the cool spring had significantly slowed the maturation of the macros. On the other hand, the white suckers were running upstream to spawn, which was delightful to see.  More than one student was shocked by a large, several pound animal splashing along a leg as the creatures slid by to find a quiet pool.  The company during the day was wonderful, as always, with Dr. Marty Berg from Loyola, Dr. Barry and Myra Coddens (TU), Jim Tingley (TU), Bob DeGraff (TU), Darwin Adams (TU), and Marna Coleman (TU) who also kindly provided a luncheon for the slightly damp crew.