Positive signs of improving water, habitat health on Dobbins
Published 7:30 pm Wednesday, July 31, 2024
The team led by Brenda DeZiel, center, make their way up Dobbins Creek in the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center Wednesday morning as the team conducts a survey of the stream. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
University of Minnesota Stream Biologist Brenda DeZiel measures a hornyhead chub Wednesday morning that was taken from Dobbins Creek in the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
A stickleback shows off its ridges Wednesday morning. It was one of the many fish taken from Dobbins Creek Wednesday as part of a study on water clarity and habitat health. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
The team begins sorting the collected fish on an exposed sand bar on Dobbins Creek Wednesday morning in the Jay c. Hormel Nature Center. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
One of a pair of lamprey pokes its head up out of the water briefly Wednesday morning after being collected from Dobbins Creek in the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center. The presence of lampreys in the creek is a sign of improved water health. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
The team begins sorting the collected fish on an exposed sand bar on Dobbins Creek Wednesday morning in the Jay c. Hormel Nature Center. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
A lamprey is held briefly Wednesday morning after being collected from Dobbins Creek in the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center. The presence of lampreys in the creek is a sign of improved water health. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
A southern redbelly dace was one of several species of fish identified in Dobbins Creek Wednesday mroning as a part of a study along the stream to determine water and habitat health. Eric Johnson/photodeks@austindailyherald.com
The silhouettes of collected fish are shown against the white pale after being collected out of Dobbins Creek Wednesday morning. Eric Johnson/photodeks@austindailyherald.com
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In a lot of ways it looked like a snake the way it glided through the water of the pail, but it was actually an indicator that Dobbins Creek is improving.
It was a lamprey — actually three lamprey — and they and a number of other varieties of fish were among those sampled in the north branch of Dobbins Creek Wednesday in the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center.
“For this part on north Dobbins, I don’t know if we’ve really seen lamprey before,” said Brenda DeZiel, owner of Caddis Fish Consulting. “We have on the south Dobbins. This is a new species for us that maybe signifies that maybe it’s improving on this side as well.”
“There is extreme diversity here,” she added.
Dobbins, both north and south, has been monitored since 2014, and DeZiel and a team were down in 2017 at around this same time doing an identical survey of aquatic life in the creek in order to better understand stream and habitat health.
The work was being carried out thanks to a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency grant that was extended in 2019. What follows is a 16-year-grant and more sample taking, which started in 2020.
The monitoring will continue to track the improvements of both habitat and fish within the stream.
The work entails using a method called “electro-fishing” which sends a small electrical current into the river, stunning the fish and allowing for the team to sample the fish they find. They then sort them and document the species.
In total, the team identified 17 species of fish in Dobbins on Wednesday.
Along with the lamprey, which measured approximately eight inches in length, a few other species were also discovered that indicated the same thing. That after seven years positive changes were being noted.
“I will say, in this particular watershed, we’ve had some extremes with flow, extremes with drought and so I think as things become more stable with flow and the groundwater is better supported, hopefully these kinds of streams will survive better during August when those low flows and warmer water will generally impact the fish community.”
During her team’s survey this year, DeZiel noted that there were both deep and shallow portions to the river that allows for different species of fish to thrive.
DeZiel also observed that impacts to Dobbins Creek by the June storms and flooding weren’t as extreme as she thought they might be.
Dobbins was one of the most impacted areas during the late June storm that brought flooding to downtown Austin. DeZiel credits the Mower County Soil and Watershed efforts upstream through retention ponds in curbing the extreme flows coming through the stream.
“This year was a really high flow year. I expected to see a lot of damage on the banks,” she said. “Usually when streams are already in an impaired state they will get really unraveled. This year they survived really well from that June storm. I think we’re entering a period where streams are going to be more stable, have better habitat and better fish and aquatic insect communities over time.”
That was good news to Mower County Soil and Watershed water technician James Fett.
“The most important thing with all of this is reducing flooding that reduces habitat,” Fett said. “It helps that habitat establish. I think it’s really cool that she’s really happy to see that.”
In a testament to how well those ponds worked, SWCD District Manager Cody Fox said earlier in July that all the projects performed as expected under the pressure of so much water received in such a short time.
One example he used was of a pond that held 140 acre feet of water, the equivalent of 140 football fields with a foot of water on them.
