Some New (to us) Species Come to Light in the Wetlands

Students, groundskeepers, and these avid teacher/naturalists made some new discoveries in the final days of school......

Among the many macro invertebrates at various stages in their life cycle in mid-June are loads of damselfly nymphs.  

Look carefully along the dock for their exoskeletons still clinging to the wood long after the adult has flown away with fresh wings.  In the water they can be easily found avoiding predacious diving beetles and gnawing on detritus.  

How about that swarm of thousands of tiny black fish?  These Brown Bullhead fry are under the protective care of an unseen parent.

Schools of these little guys were observed by canoeing 5th graders and Kindergartners.  We were alarmed to see an occasional pink one as well. Teachers of young children cannot help but to recall Leo Lionni's "Swimmy" .

Yes, alien Snapping Turtles have pulled their hulking masses up the banks of Fanno Creek to lay clutches of up to 60 leathery eggs.  Luckily this one was spotted by Mark in the early morning and Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife came to take it away.  

These invasive predators spread disease, evict native turtles, and eat everything in their path. Maybe we could set up some formal surveys (or offer a bounty to energetic middle schoolers).

...and then there is the subtle little planarian (aka flatworm) who presented itself to a group of critter catching 5th graders. They were delighted to see its comic eyespots and graceful movements.

Other aquatic species observed that day; copepods, leeches, water boatmen, snails, backswimmers, water scuds, mites, various nymphs and larvae and a diminutive freshwater clam. 

Looking for Water Quality Information near OES?

Ely Teragli at CWS sent this response to some teachers at OES and we thought others might find these links useful!

To teachers:

When Clean Water Services crews sample water in the field they test for temperature, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen and conductivity. Once samples are brought back to the lab they also test for alkalinity, bacteria, ammonia and phosphorus in the lab but those test are a bit more complicated and need specific instrumentation.

As far as historic water quality data I usually direct people to the USGS website. You can look up data collected at specific sites in the Tualatin River Watershed. There’s a lot of info available, but it might be a good exercise for students to figure out how to narrow the search.

To students:

Below are some documents that might be helpful to support your beaver research question.

·         Beaver Wetlands and Bacterial Communities

·         Beavers are an environmental asset

For the water quality piece, there is a USGS continuous monitoring point on Fanno Creek at Durham (monitoring happens daily). From this site you can choose the water quality parameters you’d like (temp, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen) and get a data table.

There is also monitoring data for several spots along Fanno Creek where samples are taken and evaluated. That data can also be found on the USGS website. You can choose one or more sites on Fanno from the drop down list and then choose a date range and some other values.

Ely Teragli |Education & Outreach | Clean Water Services 

2550 SW Hillsboro Highway | Hillsboro, Oregon 97123

(503) 681-4463 | facebook | twitter | e-newsletter

OES Ecological Restoration Update January 2014               

Hi all!

I have had a lot of questions from teachers and students at OES about the work that Clean Water Services is doing in the marsh and forest on school property.  I am going to try using this online forum to provide the update information to everyone.  Let me know what you think.

CWS Background:

Clean Water Services is the wastewater and stormwater management utility in the Tualatin River Watershed.  Clean Water Services operates four wastewater treatment plants and 40 pump stations. We also work with our 12 member cities to build and maintain the public sanitary sewer and surface water management system.  The Watershed Management Department (where I work) does ecological restoration projects throughout the basin.  Often working with city, nonprofit and school partners, we improve water quality by building and improving plant communities along waterways.  We tend to focus our projects on establishing plants along streams to shade the water (which prevents the water from becoming too warm to support our fish populations) and creating wetland complexes that retain stormwater and provide wildlife habitat.

Vegetation Restoration Projects in General:

These projects involve weed removal, replanting, monitoring and maintenance.  The trees and vegetation being removed are nonnative invasive species.  That means they are both species that were introduced to the local ecosystem and also that they tend to grow aggressively and outcompete native species.  That is ecologically harmful because you wind up with monocultures (dense stands of a single species) rather than a mix of native trees and shrubs with room for younger age classes of trees to root and grow.  It is harmful from a stormwater management perspective as well since many of the invasive species (especially the ones that grow as groundcover) out-compete shrubs with deeper root systems that prevent erosion.  Invasive grasses form dense monocultures that lack the habitat value of diverse wetland grass assemblages but still don’t provide the shade that shrubs would.

The species we are removing are English ivy, English hawthorn, Himalayan blackberry, pie cherry, English holly, reed canary grass, Portuguese laurel and others.  When this involves spraying herbicide we only work while students are not on campus and our contractors post signs with the name of the chemicals being used.  The spray itself is mixed with blue dye to make it clear where work is happening.  Once the spray is dry it is safe to walk through the area but the blue dye will be visible for a while afterwards. 

We will also be doing cut work that involves chain saws or brush cutters.  When our crews are sawing they will either be dropping invasive trees and shrubs, girdling invasive trees (which kills them but leaves them standing) or cutting around plantings to decrease competition. Stumps with blue dye are from weed trees like hawthorn that were cut and sprayed to prevent them from resprouting.

We will be replanting with native trees like oak, ash, maple, western redcedar, and cascara; shrubs like willow, spirea, dogwood, twinberry, snowberry, red-flowering currant and ninebark; and wetland sedges and rushes. 

Schedule:

Fall 2013- Himalayan blackberry, teasel, yellow flag iris removal

December 2013- English hawthorn,  invasive cherry and holly removal and chipping (the pile of chipped material is fair game if anyone wants to spread it on trails or around the planting down by SPARC).

January 2014- Ground ivy spray and cutting climbing ivy at the base of trees

February 2014- Planting around the edges of the ponds in the middle of the site. We will focus on the areas where there are fewer remaining invasive plant species.

Spring and Summer 2014 – Continued invasive species removal (teasel, blackberry, ivy and hawthorn especially)

Winter 2014-15- larger scale planting throughout the site as part of our 1 Million, 1 Year, 1 Water campaign. 

**And ongoing after that, we are required to maintain this site for at least the next 10 years. 

Map:

 

How students can be involved:

The triangular area south of Vermont and east of Nicol will be available for planting by classes that would like to help out next fall or during the spring of 2015.

Teachers who would be interested in attending a turtle monitoring training and doing surveys on the ponds should let me know.

Any class or student can walk around, make observations on plants and animals, take pictures, sample water quality or map invasive species populations over time. 

I hope you all appreciate how special it is to have a backyard like the one OES has!

Thanks!

Margaret Wagner

Clean Water Services