Ah, yes -- everyone should have the grand opportunity of that most humble of Master Naturalist activities --- water monitoring a community stream. I say humble because it is humbling that people who don't know a darned thing about chemistry and like, like myself, are entrusted with the activity of measuring such things as dissolved oxygen and PH levels in a stream not 10 minutes from home. What do these terms mean? Not too much to a novice in water science like myself-- I am better at identifying trees and wildflowers and certain butterflies -- but I "said" I would get naturalist volunteer hours doing this.
So I went this time with my newly arrived son, who'd come in from the West coast, from job hunting that was not going very well. And he helped. It was a good thing. As soon as we got on the property, the owner's dogs were out in full force, barking and pawing the car -- nice. I don't like big dogs on the loose, who for some reason like to give me a hard time. Maybe they smell my dog and get angry. Who knows? I can't read their minds. Luckily, the owner and his daughter soon arrived on the scene and corralled the dang dogs away.
So son helped with measuring turbidity (the murkiness factor) and gathering some water to be tested for PH ( 6-9 being the best, and this water was at 8, so not bad) and man, was it cold, when I had to get the water samples for the dissolved oxygen. We measured the water temp. at 52 oF (brrrrrrrrrr) and my hands got icy getting those little bottles filled with water with no air bubbles. That is a trick.
But it actually got to 70 oF out, which I'd say is warm for November. Any Master Naturalists out there who've had their share of fun water monitoring?
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