Canoe Trip!

Right after we ate breakfast we headed out for our canoe trip in french creek. We loaded all the canoes onto the canoe trailer and picked up the guest speakers. From there we headed to the Wilson chute where we unloaded the canoes, got our life jackets and oars, and carried our boats down to the shore. We took turns getting across the creek where we picked up our canoes and walked them across a little further down the shore to avoid hitting a tree. Then we canoed a little further down the creek and pulled over to look at mussels but there weren't any there so we took a few minutes to skip some rocks. Then we continued our trip down french creek to an island where we docked our canoes and looks for mussels. A specialist in mussels gave and taught us about them. We went and looked for them and found quite a few. We soon continued on and looked at all the animals like bald eagles, mayflies, ceder waxwings, and belted kingfishers. We played eye spy and watched the birds eat the bugs. We finally reached the end of our amazing canoe trip at Shaw's landing and loaded up our canoes once again.

Night Hike

Last night we went on a hike in the woods with our headlamps. We walked and searched vigoursuly and very intently for about 20 minutes before coming upon a suprise... It was an abundance of creek connection T-Shirts!!!! It was cool to finally get one. I really enjoyed the hike and it was really entertaining when Cam scared the spit out of the girls. It was a nice experence.

Watershed Info

Well, we did a lot of things today: we went on our canoe trip and search for freshwater mussels, then we ate our lunch on the banks of French Creek and got a train to blow it's horn at us as it passed.
During our lunch, we met with a man named Brian from the County Conservation District. He had come with us on our canoe trip as a guide. He explained about conservation efforts for the French Creek watershed and taught us about how people could save river banks from pollution and erosion. We learned that a lot of conservation efforts are more that just "saving the planet" but it's also about human relations. To go into conservation, you must also be good at persuading people. We learned that agriculture plays a huge role in both conserving and polluting rivers and streams. People with jobs in conserving watersheds often must work with farmers and convince them to change their ways to newer, more eco-friendly ways. For instance, Brian explain to us that when people first settled the area, they placed their barns in low ground near streams, creeks, and rivers. This was so that their livestock, primarily cows, had access to a continuous water source. To do this, they cleared all the trees along the creek to ease their animals paths. This unfortunatly allowed for the cow and such to defficate and unrinate in the water therefore adding extra nutrients that the stream may or may not have needed. Now the watershed conservationalists, as well as others, are attempting to convince farmers to fence their cows away from water.

Brian also works to rebuild reparian buffers along the sides of creeks. A reparian buffer has trees on it and helps to protect from soil erosion. This shows how important it is to conserve banks.

There's still much more of the week to go and I am very excited to see what the rest of the week brings!!

French Creek Valley

Tim gave a interesting speech about his organization that helps to make riparian buffers. A reparian buffer is an area around a stream that helps to "filter" out all the bad things that could harm the delicate environment of the stream. His organization helps to create these riparian buffers to get rid of the pollutants like excess fertilizer that get into the runoff that gets into the stream by accident. His organization tries to confront streamfront property owners for permission to make these areas. It was interesting hearing about a natural way for the environment to filter out bad chemicals.

Zach`s pets!!

Yesterday Zach brought some of his pets and he showed them to us. They were great, really amazing!! He had two little frogs that were trying to get out of the cage and he also had two little turtles that were so cute! Finally he showed us some salamanders that were also trying to escape from our hands!!

Thanks Zach!!!

Stargazing

After we found our fab creek connections t-shirts at the end of our creepy "through the forest" geocache, it was somewhat dark enough to fall sleepily onto the grass and stare up at the stars. (Thanks to Sarah, we all now know that we were sitting on "aerated" soil, not geese poop...gracias). There were some stargazing wise guys who showed us how to find the North star, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, and uuummm Orion's Belt....ppssh show-offs.

Fresh Water Mussels

During our canoe trip down French Creek, we stopped to talk about the fresh water mussels. Jerry Lang, a fresh water mussel expert, talked about the diversity of mussels that make their home in the water. We learned that over 26 different types of fresh water mussels live in the French Creek and there are about 300 species in Pennsylvania (of the 800 in the world). While off to the side of the creek, we waded through the water in search of these interesting creatures. It took a little time, but eventually we found 6-7 living mussles and many more empty shells. It was a lot of fun and was surprisingly exciting for such simple creatures.

BOATS~ SKILL TRAINING

After the rain stopped and the sun started to dry the land, the creekers emerged from North Village. We drove to the Woodcock lake and were instructed by the PA Fish and Boat Comission Guy, who was very helpful and assisted us so we could be ready for tomorrows be adventure!!!! We learned about life jackets and oars, and how to load and unload the canoes. But getting to the fun part. We entered the water and we were off!!! paddling and stearing and learning the ropes and brushing up on our skills. Some excelled greatly and others fell behind. They struggled to fight the mini waves created by the strong winds comming across the water. We went out to the mini island and waited for the "turtles" to catch up. We also posed for some pictures, and splashed each other with the freezing water. But after the build up of the lactic acid in our biceps and triceps we called it a day and loaded the truck and off we went. Peace Ooouuutt Girl scouts

Mammals!!!

Today Ryan Nageotte gave us a speech related to the different kind of mammals that live in the area near the creek, like beavers, muskrats, minks, deers, weasels... We learned many things related to this animals like what they eat and how many years they can live. It was really interesting!!

Data Sharing and lunch!

After braving the weather, we headed back to our dorms for lunch and a meeting. We had a delicious picnic lunch in the common area of the dorm and the guys played football outside. Once we were done we had a group meeting. We shared all of the data from the past two days of testing and filled out our data table. It was fun but soon it was time to learn how to canoe!

Tree Man

This afternoon, we met a man who speaks "tree".....jealous? PLUS, he even gave us our own "Learn to speak Tree" guides a.k.a "Common Trees of Pennsylvania". Well, technically he didn't "speak" to them in front of us....but we knew he did. He brought us through these super narrow paths, called out the names of nearly EVERYthing we passed, and we, in an overwhelmed fashion, tried to write down the names and keep up with Mr. Brilliant Tree Man. I can speak for the whole group in saying that the "Cucumbertree Magnolia" was pretty much the coolest tree alive....Even the bears know that...and I'm RURLY surprised no one has created Cucumbertree Seed Perfume...it smells good...om nom nom

Upstream!

Well, today we went to the upper stream to perform some more macroinvertebrate test similar to yesterdays test. We once again got the yellow bug nets and danced in water to kick up dirt. As a result, that enabled many creek animals to drifted into the net for us to see and touch. It was absolutely pouring down rain most of the time which at first was a slight bummer, but turned out to be way more fun than a sunny day. Our discoveries weren't as extensive as our first day, but we did find a red newt which I thought was so darn cool. I really enjoyed doing that and the suspense of not knowing what you are going to catch.

Owling

Monday evening at about 9 P.M. we went with a biologist to call in some owls. We drove to a nearby cemetary to try and call in some owls with recordings. We had low expectations, but we ended up amazed! Instead of getting one owl or even two, we got four. It was very interesting, the species of owl was called a barred owl, it is one of the more common owls in Meadville. We managed to call in two adults and two of their babies. It was a fascinating experience, and everyone loved it.

Fun in the Rain!

This morning, we went out to test and study the chemicals in the creek. After we got to the sight it started raining really hard. However, we got out our kits and studied upstream of the Woodcock Dam. Our group studied temperature, ph levels, turbidity, and dissolved oxeygen (among other things). We obtained these results so we can compare them to downstream of the dam. The results will be in soon and the cold will definetly worth it.

Barred Owl Family

From last week's information, we didn't expect much. Maybe it was lowered expectations that caused our owl hunt to be so successful. We went out with a local birdwatcher and professor at Allegheny College, Dr. Mumme. His idea was to go to a graveyard in Meadville and go looking for owls. In Pennsylvania, there are seven species of owls that are either native there or are present during their breeding seasons. The most commom are the Barred Owls, Great-Horned Owls and Eastern Screech Owls. Some other owls present during their breeding seasons are the Saw-Whet, Long-eared, Short-eared and Barn Owl. Probaly the most common owls to see are the Barred Owls and Screech owls.

Dr. Mumme, pronouced like "Mummy", took us to a huge ravine in the graveyard and took out a radio. At first I wasn;t sure what to expect; Dr. Mumme was obviously very knowledgeable in the field of birds. He explained to us about the calls of the different owls and even demonstrated some himself. His calls were amazingly accurate, no doubt he was practiced. After though, he took out a radio with calls of the three most common and began to play them.

We had just about given up when out of the blackness of the ravine there came the call of a Barred Owl. We couldn't believe it. At first we thought it was a dog, but suddenly the sound came from the tree directly overhead. We all turned on our headlamps and didi our best to spot the owl. We saw the owl fly back into the ravine and heard it call. To our amazment another call answered it. Suddenly we began to here the sound of two owls, presumably a male and a female, making the calls that signaled their familiarity. Both owls presented themselves to us briefly, and then one vanished. We didn't see it again. After the one owl had left we began to hear high pitched squealing shrieks that Dr. Mumme quickly identified as the calls of Juvinilles.

Instead of seeing just one owls that night, we managed to find and entire family. In all, there were four owls, two juvinilles and two adults. This was more than we would have ever anticipated or asked for. It was one of the most amazing, eerie, and, magical times I've ever spent in a cemetary. (also one of the few.)

I can't wait for the rest of the week!!! I personally hope that everything we do is everybit as exciting and intriguing as this.

GPS.

Our first activity on Sunday after our first meal on campus was GPS. That is Global Positioning System, for all you not-so-up-to-date-in-the-technology-field-readers. First we had to locate satellites so we could learn all about the device and get on with our hunt. We had some difficulties at first but they were soon solved once we were broken up into groups and given our first positions. We were off!!! A race against time and our fellow campers. Who could get to our designated positions find the next clue and in the end find our prise. We had to navigate through the campus on a not so formal tour and try to crack the code. It took skill, determination, eagle eyes, and some pretty comfy shoes. Zach's/Jill's group came in first and found their prize, aka our cool Allegheny drawstring, fieldbook, which had everything we needed to be a great camper. all in all it was a fun way to see the beauty of the campus and get some good old fashion exercise. "now i gotta goo WARSHH the cow smell off of me!"

Creek Chemical Testing...Mwuahaha

Soooo, this morning was basically the first day we started our chemical and biological analysis of Woodcock creek, eeehhum BELOW Woodcock Dam. (Tomorrow we test ABOVE Woodcock Dam). The table next to the creek was covered with lots of magically delicious boxes (actually no, I don't advise eating them), that held all sorts of tests. BASICally (pun intended), we tested pH, temperature, Total Dissolved Solids, Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen, Alkalinity, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus. They were "muy divertido" and I'm sure we all felt like legit scientists.....maybe.

Fun on the Stream Table

On monday our group went to the geology building to check out a model of a creek on a stream table. We learned about the progression of streams and some critical components of real life creeks. After the educational time we spent around an hour constructing and demolishing dams in the stream table. At the end we built one big dam across the entire table and held lots of water. It worked great for a little until it collapsed. We got wet and dirty but had lots of fun!

Downstream/macros

When we were in the downstream we were supposed to use a net and go to the creek so we could get different kind of animals and identified them. It was really interesting and we could see many species like aquatic sowbugs and blackfly larvae!!

We had a great time doing this activity!!!

Introductions!

After arriving at creek camp, my eight fellow campers and I unpacked all of our bags, got our information packets, said good bye to our parents, and began our great adventure. We all gathered in a near by field to meet everyone. We tossed two balls around to learn each others names. After that we went to dinner and set off to do the rest of the days activities!