TOSH @ D.P.

On Friday, June 4, TREC hosted about 90 grade 10 students from Three Oaks Senior High School at the Devil's Punchbowl.  It was a day organized by Rochelle Sullivan, an actively involved science teacher at the school who lives in the area and believes that the Punchbowl has a lot to share with the general public.

We decided to divide the kids into three groups and cover as much of what goes on at the Punchbowl as possible.  One of us did the forest walk up around the punchbowl itself, emphasizing systems and how they function in a healthy forest.  Another one of us took the riparian trail down by the stream and spoke about the history of the area as well as riparian importance, relating it to a systems approach like organic farming.  Finally, the last group helped to plant trees and work in the tree nursery.  Overall I think it was a great day and magically, it didn't rain!  With all the rain we've seen lately, I was sure we would be soaked, but the community outreach gods were looking favorably upon us that day.

Later, we discussed the importance of more interaction with groups of the public like that, and in particular school age kids. They are happy to have a day off school and so excited to be away from the classroom, but at the same time so receptive to the information.  I was shocked at how well they listened and how much respect they seemed to show not only me as a speaker, but to the surroundings as well. 

In all, I thought it was a great success.  Earlier in the week I found myself with a lot of anxiety about it and trying to dig up more concrete information because I didn't trust that I had enough information to keep the attention of 16 year olds, but in reality, they were interested or at least were good at appearing interested in everything I was interested in.  So, success, right?!

CAMP

Community Aquatic Monitoring Program (CAMP) is run by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and happens in 11 sites around the Maritimes.  What it involves is taking representative samples of fish populations in specific areas and keeping track of what is found where.

A pipefish-relative of the seahorse!  It has the same head shape.  It was a pleasant surprise to find lots of these in a couple of the sample areas,as they used to be very rare.  

Trout River is fortunate to have been a part of the program for many years and this year is no exception.  Once a month, reps from DFO and TREC (and any interested community members!) get together, throw a big net out into the water, drag it in and count the bounty.  Since it was my first time and it was a BITTERLY cold day, I took the job of recording the numbers and I have to say, it was really interesting.

  It was sad to see how much sea lettuce there was in some places so early in the year.  This is something that TREC would really like to see reduced, but it is a very difficult problem to cope with and solve.  The good news though, was that not all sites had sea lettuce.  There were a couple that very nearly completely free of the algae, so it's not all bad news.

  After we count the fish and toss them back in the water, it's time to take a quadrant count of the plant life at the bottom of the river.  Randy, the head of the program for the area, tosses the quadrant out and looks to see what is living down below.  In many cases there were high counts of sea lettuce, but often there was eelgrass or nothing at all.  It was another really interesting aspect of the day.  

Here is the TREC crew hard at work, putting the heavy net back into the container.  Despite the chill, the wind and occasional spit of rain, it was a fascinating day and I would highly recommend anyone to come participate!!

-Sally