Willow has been checking out the quality of the stream near her.

 

A few weeks ago we did another one of my stream health project sessions in Rai Valley. Here we are testing the water to see how murky it is. I'm looking through a clear tube and it works by trying to see where the black magnet disappears. That gives you a measurement. The water was so clear we had to use a bigger testing method called the black disc method.

This is me doing the black disc method to measure how clear or dirty the stream is. You need 3 people. Someone holds the stick with the black disc in the water and they stay still. Another person holds a tube with a mirror in it into the water and looks through it to see the black disc. This person walks backwards until they can't see the disc like the other method. The third person measures between the two people. The measurement gives the scientist how clear the water is.

I liked doing this test because I felt like a scientist. I added powder to a water sample to test how much nitrate there is. It was a low reading, which means that's good.

Here I am catching bugs from in the water to see how many and what types of creatures are in the water.

This is a bug from our sample. Its either a stonefly or a mayfly. This type of bug only lives in very clear good water. If you have a lot of these in your stream it means the water is very clean and healthy. The worst to find is no creatures or just worms living in your stream.