Cullowhee Creek Essay

The Cullowhee Creek is a small source of water that runs through Western Carolina University. The creek begins further up the mountain, then runs into the Tuckasegee River, which then flows into the Tennessee river, then the Mississippi, and finally, into the Gulf of Mexico. In this activity, we monitored the creek to determine its health. In the Riparian Inventory activity, we rated various aspects of the creek. Through rating these aspects, we were able to determine the health of the creek. Some of the things that we rated were: the amount of concrete and industrialization near the creek, the amount of life visible in the creek, and the velocity of the water. After rating these things, we determined that the Cullowhee creek was healthy,

We took a large net and set it vertically in the water, and then somebody got in the creek and kicked up sediment into the net. After doing this a few times, we collected all of the creatures off of the net and into an ice cube tray. We then examined the creatures and noted the variety (or lack thereof) of the creatures. The larger the variety in the species of the creek, the healthier the creek is. We noticed several species of fly larvae such as stone fly larvae and caddis fly larvae. We also noted a few worms. We decided that, since there was not large variety, the creek is not as healthy as it should be. After the activity, I decided that the most important fact that I learned is that the healthiness of the creek is very dependent on the surrounding environment. In order to maintain the health of our creek, we need to be careful around it and not put pollutants into the creek or in the surrounding area. We need to be mindful and considerate of our creek and treat it as a living ecosystem. After doing the creatures activity, I realized that even though you may not be able to see the creatures, they still exist and we need to respect