THE RITE OF PASSAGE: Holding a Crawdad!

The waters of the Ozarks are finally getting warm enough to wade in. This month might not be swimming weather yet, but outdoor enthusiasts are dipping their toe in the water for the first wade fishing, stepping into a kayak and some Missouri Stream Team monitoring.

I think it was natural for me to choose a biology graduate thesis on the stream bank, for I honestly was steering a boat the same summer I was learning to ride a bike. The smell of a minnow bucket is a home fragrance to me the same as cornbread in the oven is to some people. My master’s thesis on a riparian songbird would reinforce my ties to Ozark stream life and the health of the riparian area for my entire life. I was also fortunate to assist other graduate students’ work on stinkpots, hellbenders, suckers, madtoms, largemouth bass and sculpins, and all these field studies had their foundation in the health of the creeks and rivers. I get excited about creek life just thinking about it!

I have written a lot in the past about Missouri Stream Team and its citizen science connections to not only the aquatic life my biologist peers have investigated, but the direct link to our drinking water. Missouri Stream Team has been around for nearly 35 years, and anyone interested in this volunteer effort might look at MOstreamteam.org or drop by the Shoal Creek Conservation Education Center to pick up information.

One of the most popular activities with monitoring the stream is for the volunteers to examine the macro invertebrates in three adjacent areas on the streambed floor. We survey these little critters that are large enough for viewing without a microscope; these are the crustaceans, isopods, aquatic insects, etc. I mention invertebrates for the animals of study lack backbones. We later sort them out and tally their numbers into three categories pertaining to how sensitive they are to water disturbance and pollution. They will be sensitive to pollution, somewhat tolerant or tolerant. Mayflies and stoneflies are prime examples of high-quality water, while leaches and some worms let us know they thrive in poor quality (although a few might still be found in higher values).

Most of our crawdads (crayfish) fall into the middle category. Although I always highlight the sensitive inverts in school, master naturalist trainings and public programs, it’s the crayfish that usually get the attention. I remember back to my kindergarten summer, and I played with crawdads May through October. They were captivating. Fifty years later, I may use crawdads in a tub to introduce macro inverts and stream life to youth from Barry to Vernon counties. The key might be how to first hold a crawdad. Once held, these freshwater crustaceans give a young scientist a critical observation skill to scrutinize the animal more closely.

They may be in the middle category of pollution sensitivity, but they are vital to the workings of the stream and river ecosystem. Missouri has 36 different types and eight have small ranges restricted to just portions of our state. They recycle animal and plant materials on the streambed and their role in the food chain events feeds hundreds of birds, mammals, native fishes, reptiles, etc. They are truly a keystone species.

When stream team volunteers, educators and anglers examine macro inverts, they are careful to release all critters back to where they were collected. And captive crayfish should be handled the same way; it’s very important for crawdads to not be released in other watersheds. We have an engaging little Guide to Missouri’s Crayfishes booklet at the nature center. If you know of a homeschool parent, fisherman, naturalist, etc., who might be interested in the publication, please have them stop by the Shoal Creek Conservation Education Center in Joplin. We are located on the banks of Silver Creek and Shoal Creek where the Neosho Midget Crayfish and Northern Crawfish thrive. We teach and practice good water quality conservation to support the citizens of Joplin and other communities in our watershed and cool critters like the Bristly Cave Crayfish near our groundwater.

Have a great time outside and enjoy our water resources. – Jeff