|
Youth Area Watch - Community Restoration
Project - Tatitlek
1999-2000
This year, we decided that instead of starting
a new restoration project, we would follow up on
the frog pond restoration project, which took place
in the 1997-1998 school year.
The main reasons the pond became an issue was
because the frogs gradually disappeared over the
years. There were large amounts of garbage that
surrounded the pond, and the previous Youth Area
Watch group thought once it was removed the frogs
might reappear. After developing a plan, they took
water samples from different sites around the pond
to determine whether or not toxins existed in the
water. They also took all the garbage out, removing
several oil barrels and other miscellaneous
garbage. The water samples proved the water was
pretty clean, which was somewhat surprising because
of all the oil barrels that were found.
The project was a success, even though they
didn't find out why the frogs disappeared. Their
hypothesis was the frogs disappeared because of all
the ash that fell on Tatitlek from the Mount
Redoubt eruption in 1992.
What Brandon and I did was take water samples to
find out if the water had gotten better or worse
since the restoration of the pond. Unfortunately,
we didn't have any previous collected data to refer
to. The only thing we detected in the water was
carbon dioxide. The highest amount was 11 ppm.
Also, we made observations on what types of animal
and plant life consist around the pond.
The animals we spotted were insects, spiders,
birds such as ducks and stickle bat which swim in
the pond during the summer. There hasn't been any
sighting of frogs over the years.
We saw several different types of plants. Some
of them are the following: grass, skunk, cabbage,
weeds, alders, spruce trees, tough-leaved iris,
blue berries, moss, fireweed, dandelion, water
hemlock, wild carrot, cow parsnip, and bunchberry
bushes.
1998-1999
This year's restoration project focused on
cleaning up a local pond. The project addressed
local concerns about the disappearance of frogs in
and around the pond. Also, large amounts of garbage
that surrounded the pond made it an easy target for
restoration. The original idea was that if we
cleaned up the pond, possibly the frogs would
reappear.
We started out by making a general clean-up
plan. First, take water samples to see if any
dangerous toxins existed. Second, clean-up the
garbage and toxins (if any) in and around the pond.
Third, complete terrestrial transects around the
pond, and similar terrestrial transects around a
second pond nearby and compare the results. We
hoped that these results would give us clues to the
health of the local pond. We hoped to accomplish
this by the end of the 1997-98 school year. Also,
we planned to have as many people as possible from
the community and school to help.
As the school year went on, we began to
implement our plan. We took water samples from the
pond and found that the pond is pretty clean. This
was somewhat surprising as we could see old
oil/fuel barrels in the pond. From here we began
the clean-up. We hauled out approximately 10
barrels from the pond, as well as other
miscellaneous garbage. Unfortunately, we did not
have time to complete the terrestrial transects,
and have not found out why the frogs have
disappeared, but Tatitlek does have a cleaner
pond.
In closing, the pond restoration project was a
success, even if we did not find out why the frogs
disappeared. What we accomplished was the ability
to work toward a common goal, make a cleaner
environment for our village, and use
problem-solving to formulate a new hypothesis: The
frogs disappeared because of the ash that fell upon
Tatitlek from the Mount Redoubt eruption in 1992.
This hypothesis may be tested next year as the
restoration project continues.
Tatitlek Youth Area Watch Students and Site
Coordinator:
Tanya Totemoff
Kevin Blake
Michelle Vlasoff
Nanci Totemoff
Rick Schreiber
Back to Restoration
Home
Back to Youth Area Watch
Home Page
|
