South Doyle High School's Stock Creek Investigation

The Stock Creek Watershed truly became a living laboratory for 150 South Doyle High School students who participated in the Water Quality Forum’s Adopt-A-Watershed Program this past year. Laurie McCullough, with the support of her fellow CAC AmeriCorps Water Quality Team members, assisted Mrs. Wargacki’s and Mrs. Neff’s Ecology and Biotechnology classes in conducting comprehensive investigations of the health of the Stock Creek watershed. Among other assessments, students evaluated land use impacts, conducted chemistry sampling, assessed the benthic macroinvertebrate and fish communities, and analyzed bacteriological levels in Stock Creek.

Using their new-found knowledge on how Stock Creek has been impacted, each of the participating classes conducted a variety of community service projects to improve their watershed’s overall environmental health. For example, Mrs. Wargacki’s Ecology and Biotech class analyzed their watershed investigative data and presented their results to Water Quality Forum partners including the City of Knoxville and Knox County Stormwater staff. They also posted their results on the Water Quality Forum Web site, www.waterqualityforum.org, for the public to access. Mrs. Neff’s Ecology classes chose to tackle the trash in and along Stock Creek and to remove the extensive exotic plants along the riparian corridor that are crowding out the plants native to our region. Fifty industrious students conducted a clean up along a 3 mile section of Stock Creek and 50 others removed kudzu, privet and honeysuckle along a 100 ft stretch . Many thanks to each of these students who were willing to get out in their watershed - collect and count insect larvae and fish; analyze data; get dirty and sweat -- and in the end, make Stock Creek a better place for all.