The morning began with a quick dash for coffee at the local Starbucks. After some light conversation about our personal teaching positions we headed out at approximately 8:30 am. We met with Kaitlyn and Chris from the SCA at the National Park, for the second day, to continue our monitoring of the pristine streams found in Prince William County.
(Or, “another day, another macroinvertebrate”)
We loaded up and headed off deep into the wilds of… Alexandria.
Traffic wasn’t too bad! We made decent time getting to the Cameron Run, a 4th order stream in an industrial area with a LOT of human impacts. Think runoff and flooding, channelization, sewage and pollutants (ick.) But many of our fishies and bugs are resilient: even in these rather cruddy conditions, some organisms thrive.
SMV is conducting a multi-year study of fishes and invertebrates. Yes, we’re collecting, identifying, and counting critters! But we’re also looking at the physical environment: water temperature, current, pH... all sorts of other factors that determine what critters live where.
Between August 10 and August 14, 2009, ten brave Virginia educators will trek into the wilds of Northern Virginia with Dr. Maurakis and me. They’ll be participating in classes, labs, and field collections in streams and rivers… all in an effort to… well… do lots of things, actually. Check out this blog next week for pics and reports from the field. (No snow this time!)
