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Living With the Methow River Monthly Activities and Learning Opportunities January 2017 Why two pages this month? The new 2017 MRC Calendar is out and it overlaps with the last two months in the 2016 calendar. January and February 2017 will have content from both calendars. New calendars are available at the Twisp and Winthrop libraries and the Riverbank office on Glover Street in Twisp.
This month on the new calendar is about tracking fish. Fish migrate throughout the watershed, and by studying their movments, we can estimate fish populations and monitor how fish interact with different sites. The technology relies on small passive interrogation tags (PIT), similar to the tags vets use to identify runaway pets, which are implanted into juvenile fish before they're released from rearing ponds. When the tagged fish pass over an antenna, the antenna reads the number on the tag and reports it. Not all fish are tagged, of course, but the tagged few offer helpful insight into the workings of the watershed.
Antennas monitor fish activity in a side channel of the Methow river
This month on last year's calendar is about conservation easements. A conservation easment allows an agency or organization to purchase certain land rights from a landowner without buying the property itself. These easements allow for the protection of sensitive areas without the expense (and impact to the local tax base) of buying up vast areas of land. The land stays in private hands, but the terms of the easement limit development. For more information about conservation easements, click here. (Looking for last year? Click here.)
This year’s MRC calendar connects to ADVENTURES, ACTIVITIES AND INFORMATION tailored to each month. If you haven't gotten your calendar yet, you can download an electronic version here. Come back each month and find interactive activities, print outs, and suggested learning opportunities in our community.
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