Beach Site 9/20

Today we went out to set up another leaf bag down by the beach site. The water level of the river rose significantly after a couple days of rain. The river had flooded much higher than the water level was currently showing. This flooding made checking on the leaf bags, setting up a leaf bag, and testing water quality much harder. Our previously set up leaf bags were completely submerged underwater, but the rope was still tied around the tree, so it seems the bag was not carried away by the flooding. We did take water quality and tried to set up another leaf bag, but unfortunately, the bag broke when we threw it out into the water. I have included two pictures in this post, one from Monday when it had not rained and from yesterday when the water level was high

Leaf Bags- September 11

Today we went out to the bridge site to set up 2 leaf bags. We set one up directly upstream of the bridge and another further downstream.
We saw the caterpillar nest again, but it seems there were fewer critters in the nest.

WQ Bridge Site- September 8

Today we went out to the small bridge site to take our first sets of water quality data. We took one set directly beneath the bridge and another further downstream where a large collection of iron loving bacteria where located. The pH and dissolved oxygen was lower at the bacteria site. The site is close to a sewer pumping station and to a neighborhood, so there is clearly a human influence. There had not been much rain, it had rained a little maybe a few days before.
On the walk to the site, we found an interesting collection of what seemed to be caterpillar nests. We could noted this on our virtual trail and tell people to watch out for these during this time of year when walking our trail.