Monitoring 101

Groups of hardy folks from Kingston, Hansville, Indianola and Suquamish are going out every month, rain or shine, to get up-close and personal with Carpenter Creek and its saltwater connection to Appletree Cove. The freshwater creek continues to be dipped, poked and observed at four sites, most of them since 2001.

Site 1 is at Stillwaters Environmental Education Center. Site 2 is along Barber Cut Off Road on the edge of the Kingston Hill development. Site 3 is just north of Highway 104 near Jenny Davis’ Frayed Knot Farm. Site 4 is on Steve and Sally Heacock’s property along the creek, just south of Highway 104.

Four estuarine sites (where fresh water and marine mix) that connect Carpenter Creek to Appletree Cove were added in June 2005. Those sites are: 1). in the salt marsh just north of West Kingston Road on county property; 2). in Suzanne Arness’ salt marsh just South of West Kingston Road; 3). at Arness Park on Appletree Cove; and 4). at the end of the guest dock in the Kingston Marina.

Looking at these sites over time and comparing them to other salmon-bearing streams and estuarine area can begin to give us a sense of what variation in conditions streams and waterways experience and how that affects their aquatic life.

At the freshwater sites, monitors collect data on many things. They make subjective observations of everything from weather, water color, odor and how much tree cover is present, to how the stream itself has changed since the last time they visited. The stream observations can be very telling about what is going on.

Then their objective work begins. They have a set routine to perform, which they have trained for with Kitsap County staff. The stream monitors use measurement devices and do chemistry tests to measure air and water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, conductivity, nutrients (nitrate, phosphate), stream flow and fecal coliform bacteria levels. The marine monitors add salinity and do not perform nutrient analyses. By capturing this snapshot every month, these “citizen scientists” characterize the current conditions, and create a baseline from which to observe changes as our land uses or climatic conditions change.

This month we will begin to report results from temperature data. The freshwater Sites 1 and 2 have had a minimum temperature of 36 degrees (2 degrees Celsius), typically in Dec and January. Sites 3 and 4 minimums (higher in the watershed) were 37 degrees (3 C). The maximum temperature at all freshwater sites has been 61 degrees (16 C), typically in July and August. This temp was observed at all sites in 2007 but also at Sites 2 and 3 in 2001 and Site 3 in 2004.

Where freshwater begins to mix with saltwater, the minimum temperature observed was 40.8 degrees (5 C), and the maximum was 70 degrees (21 C). Therefore a fish traveling the short distance from Site 1 freshwater to the salt marsh site (approximately 200 feet) might experience as much as 9 degrees difference in temperature along with possibly lower oxygen level (the higher the temperature, the less oxygen water can hold).

Next month we’ll look at oxygen in Carpenter Creek and Estuary.

Betsy Cooper is a board member and stream monitor at Stillwaters Environmental Education Center. She also serves on the Kingston Citizens’ Advisory Council.