Flies, Snails, Leeches, Oh My! North Idaho Kids Get Down And Dirty For Water Awareness Week

Meet Seth Hotchkiss, water critter detective.

“We have everything from snails to stonefly nymphs,” the Kellogg Middle School student said with authority as he peered into a clear plastic jar. “We’ve got mayflies, we’ve got leeches.”

And this long-legged fellow?

“He’s a water skipper. He’s a member of the spider family.”

Hotchkiss and his classmates were sleuthing along Jackass Creek on Thursday. They were among 1,500 North Idaho sixth-graders taking part in statewide Water Awareness Week activities.

Twenty partners - public agencies, companies, tribes - take part in the annual event. Its goal is to help students learn about the nature and value of Idaho’s water resources.

Some work is done in the classroom and laboratory. The really fun stuff happens at streams and lakesides.

“They want to know about the critters,” said Hope Pennell, the Bonneville Power Administration biologist who coordinated this year’s events. “They want to know when they can get in the water.”

Pennell and her personal water insect collection were on hand Thursday at Jackass Creek, which cascades down the draw behind Kellogg High School.

It’s a pushy stream this week. The water surged against the hip waders of kids who got the lucky assignment to look for insects. They wielded short poles with metal strainers attached.

They passed their captive insects, and occasional tiny fish, to classmates on shore.

Pennell was impressed with how much these students had already learned from their science teacher, Kent Lunders.

“They came here knowing about thermal pollution, canopy cover, dissolved oxygen,” she said.

Before identifying insects, the students knew this was high-quality water. They calculated its pH (7.0), temperature (5 degrees Celsius) and dissolved oxygen (14 parts per million).

The presence of mayflies and stoneflies in that cold, clean water confirmed that Jackass is a healthy stream.

Thirteen Panhandle schools are taking part in Water Awareness Week. Other field trips include Lake Creek, Heyburn and Farragut state parks and the Post Falls hydroelectric dam.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos