On June 3, 2023 five FatC members met at the statue at  Babler State Park for a Stream Team water monitoring event of Bonhomme Creek.   The April monitoring event at the Bonhomme location was rained out.  This rescheduled date for monitoring Bonhomme proved to be ideal.

Steve Baker, Ken Welter, Dave Rodecap, Al Blair, and myself,  Harold Bates met at the statue at Babler State Park at 8:30 a.m.  We found ourselves looking for the path that would take us to Bonhomme Creek off Highway BA.   The undergrowth was thick and the path which in the past was clearly visible was now overgrown and hard to find.   Ken ( Daniel Boone) Welter finally found the overgrown path,  and we followed him with the equipment to Bonhomme Creek.  Drought conditions were evident at the creek, very low flow but we still found riffles.   The kick net was brought out and the FatC guys started dancing in the water to bring the bugs ( macroinvertebrates ) out of their hiding places into the net.   We used the kick net three times to gather the aquatic insects.     The invertebrates were plentiful.    We then started picking and sorting.  We identified stone flies, caddis, sow bugs, mayflies, snails, fish, crawfish and aquatic worms,    We filled the water trays with the aquatic specimens – giving all of us a look at what lives in the rocks underwater.  The selection of aquatic insects netted a score of 30 – a score of 23 is excellent.   Chemical tests for nitrates and dissolved oxygen scored excellent for this creek.   Although the water flow was slow, the creek water was clear.  Last thing to be done was a visual survey.  The creek and creek bank were in very good shape, hardly any trash and there was very little moss in the creek.  While pulling up cobblestones from the creek bottom we found several encased caddis on the bottom of every stone pulled up.  None of us had ever seen them before;  it was just something Kenny talked about in class and showed pictures on the screen. All of us got a big kick out of seeing them.  This brought things to a close, equipment packed, and a job well done for the volunteers. 

FatC has identified a new creek to monitor in Eureka, Missouri.   Flat Creek flows into the Meramec south of Eureka.    We had determined that Calvey Creek in Robertsville, Mo was no longer a viable creek to monitor due to access and deteriorating conditions.    We looked at several new locations and believe Flat Creek in Eureka will be a good replacement for Calvey.   We will schedule fall monitoring for Bonhomme and the new Flat Creek location this fall.