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52 °F 5 Day Forecast Tuesday, October 14, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend September 21, 2003 Elizabeth Hebb, 7, of Rogue River, looks for bugs in a net held by David Kizer of the Seven Basins Watershed Council during a Kids & Bugs event held at Palmerton Park on Saturday. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven All bugged out Children help researchers study biodiversity through the Kids & Bugs program By GREG STILES Mail Tribune ROGUE RIVER — It was a perfect morning to explore Evans Creek, especially if you didn’t want to get too wet. A few inches of water quickly splashed about the rocks below Palmerton Park as a dozen or so girls and a couple of boys sloshed about. Their mission was to scoop up nets full of water and help catalog whatever was in it. The goal was to find water bugs, lots of ’em, at Saturday’s Kids & Bugs event. "I caught a crawdad," said a gleeful Elizabeth Hebb, a 7-year-old from Rogue River, as she waved her container of creek water. "I was looking for a water beetle, but couldn’t find one." Only a handful of the dozens of possible finds are readily identifiable. Advertisement That’s where Lindsey Treon, a graduate student in environmental education at Southern Oregon University, lent her expertise as the youngsters sorted out their finds. "Oh look at this guy, do you know what this is?" "No." "It’s a snail." Allison Adkison, an 8-year-old from Wimer, wanted to take a crawdad home to her sister, but was coaxed out of the notion. As Allison analyzes another bug, Treon works her through a chart that will help her identify it. "He has tweezers on the back," Allison says. "Is it something with a shorter, brushier tail?" Treon asks. They determine it’s a caddisfly larva, the fly fisherman’s friend. "It looks like seaweed," Allison insists. Another wave of girls heads up from the stream, one with a crawfish in her sample. "Want to know how he breathes?" Treon offers. "See those brushes? It has gills on its belly like a fish." Even though Allison’s 11-year-old sister, Sarah, mistakenly wore a pair of flip-flops that kept trying to slip off, this is one bunch of girls with whom Dennis the Menace would gladly associate. "I caught a baby and a momma," says Allison, showing another scoop to Gail Perrotti, coordinator of the Seven Basins Watershed Council, one of the event’s organizers. Perrotti gives an approving nod. "A friend and I tried this out with our sons and at the end of three hours, we were hauling them out of here," Perrotti says. "There’s something there they didn’t know was there." The Kids & Bugs program, spread around 13 sites in the Rogue Basin, concludes at several sites today. It’s the result of a $5,500 aquatic insects grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. The money went to buy nets, sampling trays and magnifying glasses for education programs. It was coordinated by local watershed councils and the Izaak Walton League. "The ultimate goal is biodiversity, using insects as indicators of the streams’ health," Treon said. Because insects have varying degrees of tolerance to pollutants, a mix of many species can give a thorough picture. Treon began work Friday on a one-year study of the Rogue River Basin, using essentially the same methodology as the kids. An EPA computer program generated 56 random sites in the drainage that will be monitored through Sept. 30, 2004. Various government agencies keeping tabs on stream quality don’t share similar study methods such as net sizes and sample areas. She collected two 1-liter vials of bugs, sediment and leaves from the Upper Applegate on Friday. Treon estimates she stowed away 500 insects per vial. "There were a lot of bugs I didn’t see until they were in the pan," she said. The samples will be saved and then sent to a Montana laboratory next year. The results won’t likely be available until some time in 2005. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. 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