Stream Team

Here at Trinity Church we have put together a Stream Team. We are not the kind of team that shags flies, but the kind that catches bugs and other invertebrates from the bottom of a stream. We have partnered with the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC) to monitor the lower end of Rush Creek. Rush Creek is a part of the lower Grand River Water Shed which the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality wants to carefully monitor. However, state funds are quite limited for these types of projects right now so we thought that we could provide the personnel that are needed to do the job. We also feel that we have been called to be good stewards of God's Creation and want to get more involved in making sure that our local water shed is healthy and clean.

Kristi Klomp, Water Quality Programs Coordinator at WMEAC, came to Trinity at 9:00 Saturday morning and set up a classroom. For the first hour she showed us a power point which described the invertebrates that we would be looking for. Then we pulled on our waders and headed to Rush Creek which runs just a block west of our church. Once in the stream Kristi taught us how to catch the critters we were looking for by disturbing the stream bed in front of our nets. We emptied the contents of the nets into wash tubs and gave them to members of the Stream Team that were waiting on the bank. They would carefully go through the contents and sort out all of the invertebrates that they could find. They would take the different invertebrates and put them in separate sections of an ice cube tray so that they could easily be counted.

We continued up stream collecting samples for 100 yards. We found Caddisflies, Stoneflies and Mayflies. There were also leaches, snails, clams and even a dragon fly larvae. We were all amazed at how much life there is on the bottom of Rush Creek.

There is a theological document called the Belgic Confession, written about 500 years ago, which says that every animal is a letter of God's creation alphabet which tells us of God's nature. Maybe the insects we found are not the capitals of the alphabet, but they still give you a glimpse of God. Each letter in the ice cube tray is certainly worth preserving so that we can continue to discover God under every rock we might turn over. Our Stream Team is trying to make sure Rush Creek keeps teaching us about God and his creation.