What's In The Water In Norristown's Kepner Creek?

NORRISTOWN, PA -- A stork dips its beak over a rock and into a stand of murky water. The white of its coat is brilliant against the deep riparian brush along the banks. An oriole and a meadowlark race between the branches that hang over the creek and the stork perks up prominently to watch the smaller birds race figure eights before vanishing in the canopy around the bend.

Downstream from the stork, minnows are running with the current that swirls and eddies around rocks dried white by the sun.

Beneath the surface, thousands of creatures the size of a human fingernail, thousands smaller, play out dramas invisible to the world above the water.

Investigating those dramas is what this Creek Critters event at Norristown Farm Park is all about.

Adults and children older than 6 are invited to the park on Sunday, May 22, at 2 p.m. to collect and identify “all the living things they can find” in Kepner Creek.

The results of the investigation gives Norristown Farm Park an idea of water quality, says educator Ruth King. Certain indicator species will be more populous when the water is healthy.

“We’re after macroinvertebrates,” King says. “Worm-type things, planaria, leaches, freshwater mussels, and many insect species. They cling to the underside of rocks, and they’re well camouflaged, they’re the same color as the underside of the rock.”

Rare species like the stone fly nymph or the hellgrammite nymph, which turns into the dobsonfly when it matures, are the best indications.

“Unfortunately we don’t really find them,” King says.

Once creatures are collected, they are sorted in a pan and organized by their tolerance for pollution. Ecologists then apply a formula to the pan to further judge water quality.

Because Kepner Creek is an urban creek, it suffers from a variety of sources of pollution. An increase in recent rainfall likely helped, however. Kepner is not spring fed, and therefore its health depends on regular precipitation.

Macroinvertebrates aren’t the only thing that amateur biologists will discover, however.

Larger creatures like crayfish, salamanders, frogs, and turtles are common as well.

The event serves both to contribute to scientific research and to offer the community a fun conservation education opportunity.

“There’s no new water on the earth,” King says. “It’s the same water that was here when the dinosaurs were here. And we’re here to keep it clean. These creatures, they’re living in it. We’re drinking it, so we want it clean. But they’re living in it, surrounded by it, breathing it in.”

By working as amateur ecologists for the day, participants not only learn about local biodiversity, but get a better understanding of issues facing the environment.

“Kids watch a lot of TV, and have a lot of opportunities to learn about creatures that don’t live locally,” King says. “An event like this lets them focus on what’s in their own backyard.”

The event, sponsored by the Montgomery County Parks, Trails, and Historic Sites Division, requires preregistration. Interested individuals should call 610-270-0215. Please meet in parking lot #3 near the kiosk.