October

Hello again!
Happy Friday the 13th! October was a definitely a busy month. Aside from the show me service training in kansas city, I was preparing for the upcoming owls events. But I mostly focused on my water quality monitoring efforts. I have a blast working on wqm. My chemistry course focused on doing a lab in Hard Water monitoring (I was the only one to bring a sample from the creek) and aside from learning that Keifer Creek has hard water (which is not new news) I learned that it contains a high level of Barium in it. I am sure it is under the limits for drinking wataer for people. But how does this affect the life in the streams? Also, because I found the Barium (which is a white precipitate formed when the sample was mixed with NaCl in an aqueous solution), I learned that the cause of the scuds turning neon orange when dropped in alcohol could be from the barium. In a sense, they have phluorescenced like a marine fish would do in the ocean. I have formed a new experiment/research topic for school :)
My efforts with water quality monitoring continue, come january I hope to be a Level 2.
In october, on the 28th, i went to the Life in and along the streams at Powder Valley. Way cool! they hope to make it an annual event, so hopefully I can join them again next year. I continued my efforts at the Little Creek Watershed festival in North county.