Slideshow: Swamp Creek Classroom
DALTON, Ga. — Pointing to the receding stream bank, conservationist Frank Sagona explained to eight high school seniors the importance of repairing the erosion he described as “an open wound” on Swamp Creek.
Mr. Sagona has been working for three years to restore the crumbling bank of the Whitfield County stream.
“As we do that, we want to see how the aquatic life comes back,” added Mr. Sagona, watershed director for the Conasauga River Alliance.
This week, Mr. Sagona enlisted the Southeast Whitfield High environmental science students to help survey the waters.
Aquatic zoologist Brett Albanese, of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, led the survey. And students, decked out in rubber hip boots or chest waders, surrounded him as he held a low-voltage shocking device to temporarily stun fish.
Afterward, they used their “Fishes of the Conasauga” books to help identify the critters and complete their Monday fish count.
Ashley White, 18, gazed at the fish, including a colorful speckled darter. “Ooooh, you’re pretty.”
An advanced placement environmental science class — which potentially earns these students college credit — brought the students through a muddy field to the creek. Their teacher, Amanda Jones, called her pupils the “cream of the crop.”
This type of hands-on learning is part of a statewide effort to move beyond textbook teaching, said Whitfield County Schools’ official Greg Bailey. Georgia’s new three-year-old Performance Standards mandate more “relevant” learning, he said.
This generation of students also expects to be taught outside textbooks, added Mr. Bailey, director of teaching and learning.
“Old dinosaurs like me got excited when they took out the eight-millimeter film,” he said.
The students had the chance Monday to see conservation in action. Along the 90-mile Conasauga River, sediment from eroding stream banks threatens the habitat of the sensitive — and some even endangered — species that live there.
“It clouds the water so much that it interferes with their ability to eat,” Mr. Sagona said.
Development along the river has removed trees and other vegetation crucial for holding the bank in place.
The Conasauga River Alliance is working on several restoration projects to reintegrate native vegetation into the banks, stabilizing them. For their part, students began to understand the impact of humans on the river’s creatures.
On Monday, Dr. Albanese held up a lungless salamander for the students to examine.
These salamanders take in oxygen through their skin, he explained, so they’re particularly sensitive to pollutants.
“So, we’re like killing them when we dirty the stream?” asked Miss White, the 18-year-old.
Pausing, Dr. Albanese confirmed her suspicions.
“She’s right,” he said, after the survey. “This is the whole idea of why outreach is important.”
In Miss White, he saw the awe and fascination that will make her “much more likely” to care about the river’s creatures — enough to protect their habitat.
SPECIES FOUND
The fish found during the Swamp Creek survey included:
1. Largescale stoneroller
2. Blacktail shiner
3. Red shiner
4. Spotted sucker
5. Black redhorse
6. Mosquitofish
7. Redbreast sunfish
8. Green sunfish
9. Bluegill sunfish
10. Longear sunfish
11. Redeye bass
12. Coosa darter
13. Speckled darter
