Watershed Watch and Aquatic Studies

Bosque School is a participant of the New Mexico Department of Fish and Game sponsored Watershed Watch Program.  For more information regarding this program, please go to www.riversource.net.

Watershed Watch

Overview by Lauren Dennis, Bosque School student - class of 2013!

In 7th grade at Bosque School, we don’t sit around in science! We participate in Watershed Watch. Watershed Watch is a hands-on, real life research program in which we monitor watershed health and water quality. A watershed is the land that channels the water into rivers, streams and larger bodies of water. We monitor North Diversion Channel, Las Huertas Creek, San Antonio Creek and East Fork of the Jemez River (by Battleship Rock), and the Rio Grande at Montaño bridge. We go on field trips to these places on days that we have double blocks of science. When the watershed is closer, it only takes up to a half of day to monitor. In class, we study water quality and the human impact of land use.

When we go to the watershed, we measure many things. We measure plants, macro invertebrates, fish standards, pH, turbidity, nutrients, streamflow, total dissolved solids (TDS) and temperature. A lot of these tests are really fun! To measure streamflow, we get to put on waders and walk into the stream! When we measure things like copper and ammonia, we put packets of chemicals into the water sample. Then we put them into a machine called a colorimeter and it tells us the measurement. The water usually changes weird colors too. It’s pretty cool.

At the end of the year, we have a watershed watch congress! Other students that participate in Watershed Watch, as well as, New Mexico Game & Fish and River Source officials all attend. We present results from the year and recommendations. There are usually demonstrations and other fun stuff too! When you participate in Watershed Watch, you have fun, as well as, learn about the watersheds we live in!

Overview by Michael Hart, Bosque School student - class of 2013!

Watershed Watch is when our class goes out and measures the health of streams. This is important because without it we wouldn’t know how healthy our streams are and whether it is livable for fish and other water life. People and farmers have polluted our streams with chemicals and cattle waste.

We use many meter and measurements to decide how healthy our stream is. These include turbidity meters to measure water clarity; pH meters to test for acid; a meter to measure total dissolved solids and a calorimeter that measures the concentrations of substances in a solution. We also measure how fast, how wide and how deep the river is in different places. A healthy stream should be: clear, deep, fast moving, wide and neutral in pH.

We are measuring streams in the North Diversion Channel, Las Huertas Creek, San Antonio Creek and East Fork of the Jemez River and the Rio Grande at Montaño bridge. Watershed Watch is a lot more fun than just learning in a classroom. The students have more responsibility and more fun because we get to be outside and be the scientists. All the information that we gather goes to the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish and River Source officials.
 

Student Poetry