Dayton 4-H Club General Meeting
An Introduction To Pond & Stream
Life
The McCoy's,
longstanding and active members of Dayton 4-H,
participate in market goat, market and breeding sheep as well as swine.
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This evening
Mr. John McCoy gave a presentation on pond and stream life.
Mr. McCoy knows his stuff, being the Director of Ecosystem Restoration for
the MD Department of Natural Resources. |
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His aquarium samples included aquatic insects, mussels,
salamanders, fish
and frogs. The highlight of his program however was about
"Aquatic Outlaws,"
otherwise known as invasive, non-native species that displace and harm our
indigenous, native species.
He talked about having to wear a helmet when motoring on the
Illinois River,
while Chinese silver carp jumped out of the water and all around his boat.
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Specifically, Mr. McCoy showed us three species of problematic
crayfish
that
are found in Maryland waters. This one is called the
Rusty Crayfish
(note the rusty colored tail) and
has recently been found in the Monocacy
and Susquehanna watersheds.
This species has hitchhiked into Maryland in bait buckets and
competes and displaces native crayfish. It's original range was
historically confined to the
Ohio River basin and five mid-western, central states.
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The
Red Swamp Crayfish is now found on the Maryland
eastern shore,
Potomac and Patuxent rivers, competing with and displacing our native
crayfish. The native, 'original' range for the Red Swamp is the lower
Mississippi River and Gulf coast. |
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The
Virile Crayfish was actively molting (shedding it's
skin, note the one
freshly shed front claw) and has become an established species throughout
the piedmont, occurring in the Susquehanna, Gunpowder, Patapsco, Patuxent
and Potomac rivers and Deep Creek Lake. This species native range is
the
Great Lakes and Hudson River.
In all cases, these three crayfish species compete and
displace our endemics,
reduce abundance and diversity of aquatic plants,
mussels, insect larvae, snails, frogs, fish eggs and turtles.
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Great program, thank you Mr. McCoy!
Submitted by Mark Burchick
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Intro to Pond & Stream Life
