Watershed event combines water critters, soul food, advocacy | The Homepage

Liz Roer (left) and Scout Roer (center left) look for tiny signs of life in droplets of water from Panther Hollow Lake in Schenley Park while Ziggy Edwards looks on. Photo by Annie Quinn for The Mon Water Project

By Ziggy Edwards for Junction Coalition

Scout Roer of Squirrel Hill South was trying to study a tiny, elusive water mite. She carefully dripped small beads of water from a pipette, instead of big drops, into a Petri dish. Her strategy gave the creature less room to move around, making it easier to spot under a microscope. Scout and her mom, Liz Roer, were attending The Mon Water Project’s fourth and final event in its Following the Flow series.

The Oct. 7 session in Hazelwood drew a large, enthusiastic crowd of nearly 50 participants. Each Following the Flow event took place in a different neighborhood and covered a different topic related to water and watersheds. A watershed is a land area that channels water to rivers, lakes or oceans.

Each event also offered a different type of food, since it took place during dinner hours. This time, attendees were treated to a soul-food feast catered by Community Kitchen Pittsburgh. Everyone settled in at the tables to hear a talk on rivers, including the Monongahela River, where the water in our watershed goes.

Why rivers matter

The presentation began with a simple definition: A river is freshwater that flows to a lower elevation. Out of all the water on Earth, freshwater is the rarest type. And 87% of freshwater is lakes, which means rivers are extremely rare. It’s easy to lose sight of that when you live in a city of rivers.

Annie Quinn and Morgan van der Linde of The Mon Water Project explained how rivers shape the land that surrounds them. The path of rivers defined Pittsburgh throughout its history. Life on land, in turn, changes rivers.

For example, Mx. van der Linde said, pollution from mining killed the Monongahela River. But since the 1970s, when environmental laws like the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act were passed, the river has recovered in some ways. Back in the ’70s, only four species of fish lived in the Mon. Today, there are 70.

Healthy rivers (and lakes) support more kinds of life, including plants and insects of all sizes.

Live from Panther Hollow Lake

Next came the hands-on activity: Face time with some of those water bugs, also known as macroinvertebrates. Several tables had equipment for viewing the critters. People gathered around each table as Ms. Quinn delivered scoops from a bucket fresh from Panther Hollow Lake.

The once-popular park attraction is, as Ms. Quinn once described it, “currently at its worst version.” It is less than 4 inches deep, plagued by algae blooms and a recent fish kill. Even in these conditions, some life thrives. Patient searchers found immature dragonflies, stoneflies, mayflies and more. Live video images from the microscopes played on tablets for each table to see. Many of these same critters live in the Mon River.

Ms. Roer and her mom had attended three of the four Following the Flow sessions. They enjoyed them all, but said this one was their favorite.

View the Mon Water Project’s presentation slides about rivers at tinyurl.com/MWP-river-health-presentation.

Ziggy Edwards is a citizen journalist who lives in Four Mile Run and proofreads every issue of The Homepage.