Fellow environmentalists!
Ah Homecoming Week. A time of numerous parents, hugs, ridiculously difficult to find parking and of course, investigating our local creek to check on its health.
My investigation this past week has resulted in some concern. I am of course, nowhere near an expert on biological matters, but my discovery of the presence of water sliders (family Gerridae, species unknown since there are over 1700 of them that differ in extremely intricate ways) on the surface of the water for the entire duration of the Creek on campus had me a bit perplexed. Although having a diversity of bugs and other creatures is touted to be an indication of good health for any aquatic environment, I have never seen these particular insects on healthy bodies of water that I have visited. If anyone can put my fears to rest please feel free to comment.
My walk down the Creek also resulted in me seeing a lot more trash along the entire length of the Creek than in previous runs. Although I would like to attribute this to a larger number of people present on campus I am saddened to see that this larger volume seems to necessitate a greater degree of litter alongside the riverbed. There really is no reason that we cannot make the extra several feet to the nearest recycling bin to throw away our water bottles and instead find it more acceptable to throw it in the Creek. If any of you see any trash along the riverbank, please do Cal, yourselves and the Creek a favor and pick it up! It makes for a much cleaner, biologically stable and overall more pleasant environment for all of us.
Observations aside, hopefully this next week I will finally be able to make it to the Nursery! I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands dirty and making a contribution. Until next week!
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