Creek walk participants filled out their Stream Critter Passport under the guidance of Tom Timmerman- the district biologist for the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Northeast district’s 26 counties. Timmerman said the message of events like this is always to slow down and take in the world around us.
“At first glance you’ll see some cray fish and a few fish here and there but if you just stop for two seconds and flip over a rock or two or just stop and be still you can see hundreds of other little bugs and creatures all making their worlds,” Timmerman said. “All that is important for both to whatever it is you’re trying to learn from the stream and if you’re an angler is important to know that stuff too for what you’re fishing.”
He said Martin Branch is populated mostly by macro invertebrates, or aquatic bugs, many of which indicate clean water. Timmerman said his goal is to encourage a passion for nature, and campaign against pollution as the littlest of streams connect to and affect the big streams.
“Today in this particular stream we saw a lot of mayfly larvae, some water pennies, all those sorts of things can’t tolerate polluted water. So, when you see a bunch of those things you know that is a pretty good, clean water and as a bioindicator those indicate good things,” Timmerman said.
Officials said an important part of protecting a local stream is respecting the riparian zone, the vegetation that exists on both sides of the stream that helps prevent excess sediment and silt from getting into the stream and damaging habitats.
The now retired and previous district biologist, Fred Howes, said this siltation is the biggest affecter of streams.
“From improper logging to not leaving a riparian zone where it increases erosion. And then you have developments that go that open it up and the silt comes in. Therefore, if we were in that situation here, we would not find any of these things here,” Howes said.
He said the occurrence of damaged streams by corporations has gone down significantly in the district since he got his start in the career in 1986, but the work is still important.
“Streams are living entities, and because we all drink water it is important to take care of all these streams, because eventually somebody drinks this water,” Howes said.
David Dummer, current chair of the Friends of Rodburn Hollow Park said community education events like this are just a small part of what they do.
“We fall under the city Parks and Recreation Department. They support us, we’ve had several projects out here. We’ve rebuilt the bathrooms, we’ve rebuilt bridges, we keep the trails together,” Dummer said.
He said the group partners with other organizations like Teach Me Outdoors, the public library, boy and girl scouts as well as the county jail work release program. Dummer said it takes a diverse group of people to keep the park running.
More information on Rodburn Hollow Park and future events is available on the Friends of Rodburn Hollow Park website.