Splash in a stream

What better way to spend a hot summer afternoon than cooling off in a nearby stream?

Just roll up your pant legs, put on some old sneakers and prepare to get wet! You can spend the day just splashing around or take the time to discover the creatures that live in the stream.

Discover a stream’s inhabitants

The water quality and health of a stream can be determined by what lives there. In a healthy stream, there will be a variety of organisms that cannot tolerate pollution. In an unhealthy stream, only a few types of organisms can survive. Here are some inhabitants that determine water quality:

• Good – mayflies, stoneflies, gilled snails
• Fair – dragonfly and damselfly
• Poor – midges and leeches

You’ll be amazed at how many creatures you might find by simply turning over rocks in the stream. Once you find some of these inhabitants you may want to store them in a plastic container to examine them more closely with a magnifying lens.

Be sure to stay in shallow water and visit one of the participating areas which allow public access.

For complete instructions on how to find and identify stream inhabitants to determine water quality, visit the Division of Natural Areas web site.