Activity 11: Creek Monitoring

 
 Coho salmon smolt from the Shasta River, northern California. Photo by Lisa Thompson

Overview
Background Information
Objectives
Time
Materials
Advance Preparation
Setting the Stage
Conducting the Activity
Wrap-Up
Enrichment

Overview
Participants perform a variety of assessments of the local creek to determine whether it is a suitable habitat for salmon and steelhead.

Background Information
Working closely with the salmon and steelhead resource professional, participants monitor several different aspects of the creek to determine its suitability for salmon and steelhead. In general, a healthy salmon and steelhead habitat contains areas with riffles (shallow areas where water flows rapidly over gravel or rocks) and pools. It has different sizes of rocks and plenty of overhead cover from trees and plants. It also has cool, clear, running water that is free of pollution. For more information about these habitat needs, see the Background Information in the Unit Overview and Fish Habitat in Freshwater Streams.

Depending on the water quality test kit you use, participants can test for the following:

  • Temperature is a measure of the warmness or coolness of the water, and an important habitat factor for salmon and steelhead. The optimum temperature depends on the species and the life stage. In general, however, if the water temperature is higher than 640 F (180 C), salmon and steelhead may become sluggish and more susceptible to disease and predators. While temperatures in the 740-780 F (230-260 C) range may be lethal, salmon and steelhead in California can sometimes tolerate these higher temperatures for short periods of time. In California, the temperature of a creek or stream can vary tremendously at different times of the day or in different locations along the stream. If the temperature in one place is too warm, salmon and steelhead will seek out a different location with cooler water.

Agriculture, reservoirs, industrial discharges of heated water, and the plant cover over the creek can all affect water temperature.

  • Turbidity is a measure of water clarity. Salmon and steelhead require clear (non-turbid) water. Turbid water contains suspended matter such as clay, silt, chemicals, or microscopic organisms and can be caused by soil erosion, high levels of algae, or disturbances of the creek bottom.
  • Dissolved Oxygen (DO) tells how much oxygen is dissolved in the water. Salmon and steelhead require water with high dissolved oxygen levels. As DO actually decreases overnight, the best measurements are taken in the pre-dawn hours or with a logging DO meter (see Advance Preparation ).
  • pH is a measure of how acidic or basic the water is and ranges from 0 (very acidic) to 14 (very basic). Natural water usually has a pH between 6.5 and 8.0. Industrial waste and agricultural runoff can affect pH. Fish usually cannot withstand pH values lower than 4.0 to 5.0. Values this low are rare in California (low pH is more of a problem in the Northeast, due to acid rain).
  • Nutrients (including phosphate and nitrate) in the creek, like nutrients in a garden, are essential for growth. They become a problem when their concentration levels are too high. Excess nutrients in the water can cause excess plant growth (especially algae). When these excess plants die and decompose, they can cause dissolved oxygen levels in the water to drop. Common sources of excess nutrients are soil erosion and water runoff carrying fertilizers from farms, lawns, and golf courses. Other sources include sewage and storm drain discharge, and industrial discharge.

(Note: Water quality test kits do not all measure for the same nutrients. Ask your salmon and steelhead resource professional for a suitable range for the particular nutrient parameters included in your kit.)

  • Coliform Bacteria are normal bacteria that live in the digestive tract and feces of humans, other mammals, and birds. While not harmful themselves, their presence in water indicates sewage or fecal contamination. When coliform bacteria levels are high (greater than 200 colonies per ml), salmon and steelhead are more susceptible to disease. At these levels, people may also be exposed to diseases like dysentery, typhoid fever, hepatitis, and ear infections.

Objectives
Participants will: (1) conduct a number of assessments of the local creek, and (2) based on the data and what they know about salmon and steelhead habitat requirements, evaluate whether the creek is a suitable habitat.

Time
Setting the Stage: 30 minutes
Activity: At least three group sessions, with additional time for on-going monitoring

Materials

Advance Preparation

  1. Talk with your salmon and steelhead resource professional (see Resource Professionals under Unit Overview: Tips for Managing the Unit ) about which monitoring activities will be suitable for your participants and your creek. Depending on your situation, you may plan to conduct one or all of the suggested assessments. Take into account:

    • What participants want to find out about the creek habitat (see Setting the Stage , step 1)
    • Any safety concerns of participants working near or in the creek (see Water Safety under Unit Overview: Tips for Managing the Unit )
    • How much time you have
    • What materials you have or can obtain
    • How many adults can assist in monitoring
    • Who else may be using the data collected
  2. If possible, time this activity to coincide with the periods that salmon and/or steelhead might actually be in the creek either as young fry or as spawners. Consult your salmon and steelhead resource professional about the best timing, keeping in mind water safety as well (see Water Safety under Unit Overview: Tips for Managing the Unit ).
  3. Obtain a water-quality testing kit through your salmon and steelhead resource professional, a local creek watcher’s organization (see Resources: Resource Agencies and Organizations ), or a science supply company (see Resources: Science Supply Companies ).

    Basic water quality testing kits will enable you to test for parameters such as temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pH, nutrients, and coliform bacteria (see Background Information ). Read over the testing kit directions before doing the activity.
  4. Print one copy of the “Creek Monitoring” worksheet, and insert under the Water Quality section the tests your group will be conducting. As there can be a wide variation in local conditions, ask your salmon and steelhead resource professional to confirm what results would be suitable for the salmon and/or steelhead in your area, and insert this information in the appropriate place on the worksheet. Make copies of the worksheet for each team.
  5. Ask your salmon and steelhead professional to accompany your group on the field study trip and to help with the water quality testing and salmon scanning activities. Also ask him or her to meet with the group after the trip to discuss their results.
  6. If possible, arrange with your salmon and steelhead resource professional for the use of a logging DO (dissolved oxygen) meter, which will give more accurate results than the DO test in your water quality kit. Have him or her obtain DO measurements at your creek site for participants to analyze. Also, ask whether he or she has any spare 24-hour temperature loggers to set up at the site (in air and in the water) for the duration of the unit. This data would help to give participants a sense of the daily and seasonal variations in temperature.
  7. If possible, arrange for participants to monitor the creek on an on-going basis, as this will provide a more accurate picture of the creek habitat than monitoring just once. Consider your group schedule to determine when, how often, and over what time period participants will do the monitoring. Involve participants in the planning when practical.
  8. Within the week before the assessment, make a quick trip to the site to check for unexpected hazards, such as high flows, changes in access trails, or pollution. If anything about the site appears unsafe, check with your resource professional about finding another site.
  9. Gather the necessary materials for the creek assessments you plan to do.
  10. If your participants are unable to monitor in the field, plan to use real-time Web-based data on stream flow, temperature, and dissolved oxygen to monitor creek conditions (see Resources: Monitoring ).
  11. Set the date and plan each field study trip (see Planning Field Study Trips under Unit Overview: Tips for Managing the Unit ).
  12. Plan how to manage the creek assessments. You might have teams rotate to different stations set up along the creek site, with at least one adult at each station.

    • Parent volunteers can easily manage the Riffles, Runs, and Pools; Overhead Cover; Stream Velocity; Gravel Size; and Salmon and Steelhead Scan stations.
    • You or the salmon and steelhead resource professional (if available) should plan on managing the Water Quality station. Depending on the water quality parameters you will be testing, you may need to double the time (and number of participants) at this station.
    • Salmon and steelhead are easily spooked by noise and other disturbances. They will then hide under cover or move to another part of the stream. Either plan to do the Salmon and Steelhead Scan together as soon as you arrive at the field study site, or place the Salmon and Steelhead Scan station well upstream of the other stations to minimize disturbance.
    • Decide where to put each of the other stations along the creek site. The Water Quality station should be upstream of all stations except the Salmon and Steelhead Scan station.
  13. On the day of the field study trip:

    • Go over the station directions with parent volunteers to make sure they understand their task.
    • Ask the salmon and steelhead resource professional (if available) to point out salmon and/or steelhead so that parent volunteers can help participants find them for the Salmon and Steelhead Scan station.

Setting the Stage

  1. Have participants look at the KWLR chart and identify questions they still have about the salmon and/or steelhead in your watershed. For example, participants may still have unanswered questions such as, “Is our creek a healthy habitat for salmon and steelhead?” or “Why don’t salmon and/or steelhead live in our creek any more?” Explain that they will have an opportunity to monitor the creek for a variety of different conditions, and ask them to point out which of their questions could be answered through this activity.
  2. Ask participants what conditions salmon and steelhead need for a suitable creek habitat. Have them look at the KWLR chart and their completed “Salmon and Steelhead Life Cycle” worksheets to help them recall specific conditions. List these conditions on the board.
  3. For each condition listed in step 2, ask participants for their ideas about how they could tell whether that condition is present in the local creek. For example, how would they know whether the water is free of pollution? You might have them look at their worksheets and maps from Activity 5: Salmon and Steelhead Creek Walk for ideas.
  4. Hand out copies of the “Creek Monitoring” worksheetand read over it together. Point out that the assessments measure the various conditions that salmon and steelhead need in their creek habitat, and will help participants to determine the suitability of the local creek as salmon and steelhead habitat. Ask, “Which assessments will help to answer the questions we have (from step 1)?”
  5. Explain the procedure for each of the creek assessments that participants will be doing (the assessments will depend on their questions from step 1 and on suggestions from your salmon and steelhead resource professional (see Advance Preparation , step 1).
  6. Do a practice run of the water quality tests the group will be doing.
  7. Review your behavioral expectations for the creek monitoring and explain any logistical details (see Planning Field Study Trips under Unit Overview: Tips for Managing the Unit ).
  8. Answer any questions participants may have about the assessment or the field study trip.

Conducting the Activity

  1. At the field study site, point out or mark the overall boundaries. Mark a spot for each of the assessment stations.
  2. Ask the group, “What safety concerns might there be here? What potential hazards do we need to look out for? What areas appear to be fragile (such as stream banks or certain plants)? How can we avoid damaging the habitat?” Review behavior expectations. Make sure that adult chaperones know what you want them to do with participants.
  3. Have each team start at one of the stations. (If you will be doubling up at the Water Quality station, have two teams start there.) Give participants about 10-15 minutes at each station before giving the signal to rotate.
  4. After participants have completed all the stations, gather the group together to share their findings. For each assessment (temperature, dissolved oxygen, stream velocity, and so on), discuss:
    • What were our results for this assessment?
    • Why might different teams have gotten different results?
    • Do you notice anything in the immediate area that might affect the results? (For example, turbidity, which is an indication of erosion, may be affected by the lack of vegetation along the creek.)
    • (If salmon or steelhead were present) What were the salmon or steelhead doing? How did they seem to be using different parts of the habitat?
  5. Back in the classroom or meeting room, use chart paper (or the board) and help participants make a group compilation of the results. Have participants compute the range, mean, median, and mode of the data for each assessment.
  6. If you have received DO or 24-hour temperature data from your salmon and steelhead resource professional (see Advance Preparation ), share that data with the group and have participants make a graph of the data over time.
  7. Participants should look at the results of each assessment and determine whether that condition meets the needs of salmon and steelhead, or whether the data is inconclusive. Make sure participants understand that their results represent just one point in time along one section of the creek. While the data can help identify possible problems, participants cannot definitively determine the overall health of the watershed based on these results alone.
  8. For any results that do not fall within the suitable ranges, have teams look at the data they have compiled from previous activities for clues as to the causes. They might find clues in their:

  9. Invite your salmon and steelhead resource professional to meet with the group to view their results, and to provide a big picture or long-term view of your local creek or watershed conditions affecting salmon and/or steelhead.
  10. Discuss:

    • How well does our watershed seem to support salmon and/or steelhead? What factors influence its ability to support salmon and/or steelhead?
    • What does the presence or absence of salmon or steelhead tell us about the quality of the water in the creek, the condition of the watershed, or other factors of the watershed?
    • In what ways could our creek or watershed be restored as a habitat for salmon and/or steelhead?
    • Healthy streams are important for salmon and steelhead, and they are also important for people. Is there anything we learned about the creek that could affect people?
    • How else do salmon and steelhead and people affect each other?
  11. Explain to participants that in the next activity (Activity 12: Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project ), they will use what they have learned to plan and carry out a restoration project.
  12. If you planned to conduct long-term monitoring of the creek (see Advance Preparation ), revisit the creek to repeat the assessments. Help participants make graphs and charts showing the data they collect over time. Have participants look for patterns in the data. Does their assessment of the creek as a suitable salmon and steelhead habitat change over time?

Wrap-Up

  1. Have participants look at the KWLR chart again. Add their ideas to the “L” sheet (What We Have Learned) and “W” sheet (What We Wonder). Discuss:

    • What have we learned as a result of this activity?
    • Did we find the answers to our questions about salmon and/or steelhead in our creek (from Setting the Stage , step 1)?
    • If not, what else might we do to answer these questions?
    • Do you have any new questions about salmon and steelhead?
  2. Have participants write their responses to the following questions:

    • Is our creek a suitable habitat for salmon and steelhead? What facts and observations support your view?
    • In what ways do people affect whether the creek is suitable for salmon and steelhead? What facts and observations support your view?
    • What could people in our community do to restore salmon and steelhead habitat?
  3. Direct participants to place their responses to the questions and their completed worksheets into their team portfolios.

Enrichment

  • An amazingly accurate indicator of a creek’s water quality is the number and kinds of insect larvae, snails, worms, and other invertebrates living there. Some of these invertebrates are quite sensitive to pollution and will only be found in very clean water, while others can tolerate poorer water quality. Surveying the macroinvertebrates (those that can be seen with the naked eye) in your creek is a fascinating activity to do with participants. It does require walking in the creek with a kick net and some familiarity with the organisms. Ask your salmon and steelhead resource professional about whether this assessment would be suitable for your creek situation. Take into consideration participant safety (see Water Safety under Unit Overview: Tips for Managing the Unit and whether walking in the creek could harm salmon or steelhead, or their habitat. For information see Habitat Monitoring under Resources: Monitoring ).
  • For an assessment of the size of gravel and rocks in a creek bed, help participants sample and measure rocks in the creek itself. As in the activity, at marked intervals participants reach down into the water and, without looking, pick up the first rock their finger touches at the end of their boot. For this, you will need to stretch a measuring tape or string across the creek. Make sure that the creek level is safe and that participants walking across the creek will not harm salmon or steelhead, or their habitat (see Water Safety under Unit Overview: Tips for Managing the Unit ). For detailed directions on doing a pebble count, see Field Procedures: Pebble Count.
  • Check the State and Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Animals of California for listed species in California. Have participants choose one of the species to research, answering questions such as:

    • How has the population of this species changed over time?
    • What habitats does this species depend on?
    • What are threats to this species?
    • What are people doing to increase this species in California?

Worksheet (click to download PDF)