Hey Central Ohio!
I’ve got some good news for you regarding the water quality at Alum Creek. It has recently been discovered, by Ohio Dominican University Students, that a rare fish is inhabiting Alum Creek. The fish is a Tippecanoe Darter (Etheostoma Tippecanoe if you want to impress your friends with the latin name), which is considered a threatened species in Ohio. Darters are small fish (Tippecanoe darters rarely exceeding 1.5 inches long!) that prefer to inhabit riffles (relatively shallow reaches of a river where the water “tumbles” over gravel and cobbles). Historically they have been found in the northeastern U.S. from Ohio to Tennessee vertically and from Pennsylvania to Illinois laterally where they occur in sporadic or patchy populations. However, these darters have been extirpated (eliminated) in many of their historical reaches including the Muskingum River watershed here in Ohio.
Their numbers largely have been decreasing because of excess sedimentation and habitat alteration. Excess sedimentation has the potential to fill in the crevasses in the riffles where the fish lay their eggs, and can also cause increased turbidity (cloudiness in the water) which can make it harder for the fish to find each other during mating seasons. Sedimentation can occur in both urban and rural agricultural areas. Habitat alteration can occur when impoundments like dams or levees impede the water and sediment transfer abilities of the stream; channelizing a stream (constructing a floor and walls around the river usually with concrete) also eliminates all potential habitat and mostly occurs in urban areas.
Restoration efforts are diverse and involve many organizations, local governments and concerned citizens working in unison. One organization, Friends of Alum Creek and Tributaries (FACT), has been working to better the watershed as a whole since 1998 through education/outreach, advocacy, and restoration events like river clean-ups and corridor restoration. It’s important that these sensitive darters were found in Alum Creek because they are good indicators of water quality. Finding them in Alum Creek is not only good news for restoration efforts, but for all us in Central Ohio that care about healthy waterways!
References:
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/202545/0
http://nbc4i.com/2017/09/24/rare-fish-discovery-in-alum-creek-is-good-news-for-water-quality/amp/
http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/species-and-habitats/species-guide-index/fish/tippecanoe-darter