gracek -- Blogmeister

My hometown is Chimacum Washington. It is a very small town. We have lots of cows and other critters. We also have lots of farms. Are WHOLE middle school has 250 kids. I love my hometown.

This is the slide show for flow rate that my partner and I made!
Hope you like it! :)

First we learned about macros. We discovered our creek was healthy without much pollution when we found out that pollution intolerant bugs were living in our creek! Next we

took a deeper look into water pollution, I learned that there are lots of kinds of water pollution! After that we learned about the salmon life cycle. I learned that there are 7 cycles the

salmon go through egg, alevin, fry, parr, smolt, adult, and spawner. After all that learning we went down to our creek to see how it was doing! We tested D.O, Ph, Flow rate, Nitrates,Temp,Turb, and Amnonia.With all of our data we learned our creek was doing good in all areas. And remember...DON'T POLLUTE OUR CREEK!

We know our creeks D.O is doing well because we got an 8.125 mg/L and we wanted between 5.0 - 10.0. pH is doing well too because we wanted between 5.5-8 and we got a 6! Turbidity is also doing well because we wanted between 0-50 and we got a 44.7 ntu. Nitrates is doing good too because we want below a 1.0 and we got a .3 mg/L! We did not get a good score but...We know our creek is doing good in the ammonia department because we have fish living in our creek and pollution intolerant macros! Flow rate was my job this year and we got 1972 gallons per second into our creek and this amount of water is good for our creek because of the size and we know fish can rest and the creek is still flowing like a champ. Temp also did a good job this year with a average of 37.1 F, we wanted between 32 and 40 F.

So over all Chimacum Creek is doing BAD HORRIBLE NOT GOOD AT ALL.... Just kidding! Our creek is doing awesome! :) But to keep it this way we need to do things like NOT litter, NOT put things in the creek, or NOT put any other gross yucky stuff into our creek because that can affect our fish, macros, and even ourselves if we pollute too much.... Just think... Would you like to be living in gross garbage and stuff like that? I would not...

When we first got off the bus to tree plant we got into groups (my group leader was Chauwncee) and walked down to the tree planting area. When we got there we played a name game. Then he explained how to plant the trees and use the shovel. After that we got into pairs. My partner was Kyliegh. After we got into pairs we started planting. After we all planted almost all our trees we headed back to the bus. My favorite part of the whole trip was planting trees. I also want to say thanks to Jac, Aliina, and Chauwncee, and the other volunteers.

When the salmon get back "home" they will start spawning. Then the female lays her eggs. A female may lay 5,000 eggs. Some salmon may survive after laying their eggs but most will die. To lay their eggs they need unpolluted water. A this time the biggest threat to them is dying after spawning.

The parr will start going to sea. On their way they will face pollution. They need clean water to make a successful journey downstream. When the salmon reach the estuaries they will start osmoregulation. This is the adaptation of gills and kidneys to salt water. They are now a smolt.

When the fry get parr marks and start feeding in fresh water they are called a parr. The parr eat fish eggs,worms,and crustaceans. They need all of this food to survive. They also need cool water to survive. Bigger fish are big threats to parrs.

A adult salmon will feed and grow in the ocean for around eight years. They eat shrimp,squid, ect. Orcas, seals, and sea lions are big predators to the adult salmon. Humans also will kill salmon for food. They need to have a food source to survive. After around eight years they will go back to their birth place and spawn.

Fry's start to live in school after awhile. They also start feeding in rivers, mostly on zooplankton until they grow up and start eating aquatic insects. Some fry stay in the river for up three years. But some go to the ocean as soon as they get out of their nest. Loss of riparian habitat along the streams, rivers, estuaries, and bays is one of the biggest dangers. Try's need cool water.

Before the alevin start to get out into the open they survive on there yolk. The yolk will last them a month or so. Once they leave the gravel they become a fry. Threats for both alevin and eggs are : gulls, dippers, sculpins, and trout. People are also big threats.