First Meeting With Mr. Davis
Mr.
Alan Davis is the Supervisor for the city parks in Pullman.
In December of 1995, our class had our first meeting with
Mr. Davis. The class told him about our water habitat study.
The class had noticed many changes in the pond habitat and
asked him questions about the changes.
When
he came to our classroom the class showed
him: 1.
A videotape we made about a trip to the ponds 2.
Our Sunnyside Pond Photo Journals from 1993 to
1995 3.
Individual classmates writing journals about the
ponds 4.
Email messages we had sent and received about water habitats
and the classroom globes we use to locate the places where
they send and receive email 5.
Our Water Habitat Quilt made with children from Kimball
Elementary in Seattle and from Escuela de la Costa in Puerto
Madryn, Argentina 6.Our
artwork and sketches of the Sunnyside Park
Ponds
Here
are the questions the class asked Mr. Davis and the answers
he gave which helped the class understand the pond
habitat. 1.
There used to be black swans at the pond. Why are the black
swans gone? "The
city of Pullman bought the male and female black swans for
Sunnyside Pond. The female was attcked and killed by
something like a mink. Black swans mate for life. When the
female died, the make died too...maybe from a "broken
heart". The city isn't going to replace the swans yet
because people were throwing things at them, hitting golf
balls at them, and throwing frisbees at them. Also swans can
be very agressive to people." 2.
Why is the water changing colors from olive brown to
turquoise? "The
city puts dye in it so the algae plants won't grow and take
over the whole pond. We put dye in at springtime and
soemtimes in the summer. In the fall, the dye is gone. the
dye doesn't harm the ducks or fish." 3.
Why is the island getting smaller? "The
muskrats dig into it and makes holes and burrows. We try to
catch themuskrats and take them to other places so they
won't be at the pond anymore but they keep coming. We might
have to take down the island and build a new one. To do
this, we would have to drain all the water." 4.
There used to be lots of Canada geese at the ponds. Where
are they? "Since
the swans died, the Canada Geese don't stay at the pond as
much as they did before. The Canada Geese are wild and used
to stop at the pond. When the swans were there, the mallard
ducks, Canada geese, and swans all got along together okay.
But with the swans gone, it doesn't balance out right and
the geese seem to not stay as long as they did
before." 5.
Why are there not as many mallard ducks? Because
the swans are gone, not many mallard ducks come either. The
ducks and geese migrate to Pullman's Sunnyside Park ponds
but they don't stay there as much without the swans
there." 6.
We see more farm ducks from the farm by the park coming to
the ponds now. Why are they starting to use the
ponds? They
come because the large numbers of wild ducks and geese left
and it means it is more safe for them to be
there." 7,
Why were the farm ducks coming up to us and then going
away? "They
probably were hoping you had food for them and when you
didn't, they went back into the water." 8.There
is no water in the small cement pool above the waterfall and
no water in the waterfall. Where's the waterfall water and
pool water? "We
turn off the water pump that pumps water from the small pond
to the pool above the waterfall because the pipes will break
when it freezes in winter. If we turn off the water so it
doesn't tumble down the waterfall, the big pond will freeze
and we can go ice skating. When we trun off the pump, the
stream gets dry to because the big pond isn't so
full." 9.
Where do the muskrats go in winter? "In
winter, they burrow and they don't come out as much but they
are probably still there." Mr.
Davis then asked us if we had recently seen a moose at the
ponds and we said, "No". He told us that five years ago,
people reported seeing a moose on Kamiak Butte near Pullman
and recently people saw one at the ponds. He said moose
travel in wide circles and their circle is getting bigger.
The baby moose follows where the mother moose goes and when
it grows up, it keeps going in those same circles. He
thought maybe the moose that people recently saw at the
ponds was a baby five years ago and that now it was going in
a wider circle. Mr.
Davis thanked us for doing the water habitat study at the
ponds and encouraged us to keep watching the wildlife and
the island. He suggested we meet again and think together
about what we could do to help with the care of the ponds.
He hoped we could work together to restore the
island. In
the Spring of 1996, we did a live internet video workshop
for the YouthCaN Earth Day Conference at the New York City
Museum of Natural History. I*EARN helps with the conference
and asked us to share our water habitat study. Children and
youth from around the New York City area come to the museum
for the conference. We used the computers at the College of
Education at Washington State University in Pullman to make
the live internet video connection. We prepared a
presentation to tell them about how the wildlife at the
ponds has changed and our concern that because the island is
shrinking it doesn't have enough space for nesting water
birds like the mallards. After we finsihed our presentation,
the students in the auditorium at the museum suggested we
get a lot more people to care about the island and then
maybe we could get it restored. During the
1997-98 school year, we talked again with Mr. Davis about the problem
of the island shrinking and the number of mallards getting smaller
and smaller. He suggested that our class plan a presentation for the
City of Pullman Parks and Recreation Committee about our pond study
and ask for their help in restoring the island. To learn about our
presentation click on "Presentation
to City of Pullman".
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