Lake Doctor | A Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams Podcast

Freshwater Focus: Turtles, Fish and Water Literacy

• Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Can tank safety teach kids about personal space and environmental respect? Join us as we sit down with Leslie Tharp, the passionate school librarian from North Webster Elementary School, to uncover how her love for turtles and nature has shaped her educational journey. We'll explore Leslie's heartfelt stories of protecting baby turtles from raccoons, a family project that blossomed at Camp Crosley. Learn how Leslie's transition from teaching to library science has been influenced by her deep-seated love for research and wildlife conservation.


But that's not all! Leslie also shares her innovative approach to teaching environmental stewardship by implementing tank safety in her library. We discuss how observing fish tank dynamics helps students understand personal space and the feelings of other creatures. Additionally, dive into the world of local turtle species, their crucial ecological roles, and Leslie's thrilling adventures in spelunking and interest in bat conservation. Dr. Nate Bosch and Emily from the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams amplify the conversation with insights into the "Lake in the Library" program, highlighting how aquariums help young students grasp the importance of clean water and environmental care. This episode beautifully weaves together themes of family, education, and conservation, promising a wealth of inspiring stories and valuable insights.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the Lake Doctor podcast. I'm your host, Suzy Light. I get to share some stories and talk about our beautiful lakes with my friend, Dr Nate Bosch. Nate, you got your doctorate from University of Michigan in limnology.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's right, suzy. Limnology is like oceanography, only it's the study of freshwater aquatic systems. On this podcast, we're going to dive into some lake science, meet folks who are passionate about our lakes, just like us, and have some fun together as well.

Speaker 1:

Visit lakesgraceedu, where you can learn more about the topics in this episode and support the Lilly Center's work.

Speaker 2:

In today's episode we have Leslie Tharp, who's going to talk to us about water literacy at home, in the classroom and in the school library, and even about turtles and bats as well.

Speaker 1:

Turtles and bats. We're so excited about today's episode of the Lake Doctor podcast. We have a real treat for you today. Leslie Tharp is joining us from North Webster, where you are the school librarian at North Webster Elementary School.

Speaker 3:

Leslie, welcome, thank you so much, tell us a bit about yourself. So, leslie Tharp. So I am originally from Brookville, indiana, so southeastern Indiana. I moved up here 2012, I think, with my husband who lives at Camp Crosley. So we've got two boys, asher and Emmett, who are six and eight.

Speaker 1:

And you taught at Jefferson School in Warsaw. Yes, for a couple years, eight years, eight years and then took a break and became a school librarian. What was that journey?

Speaker 3:

like. So I took off a couple years to stay home with my youngest and then, when it was time for him to go back to school and I wasn't sure what to do, right before school started I heard from Principal Lee Snyder there that he had a couple openings and one was the librarian and I thought, ooh, that sounds fun. So we loved going to the public library and I thought, man, I could probably do that job, so applied for it and I'm loving it.

Speaker 1:

So I think librarians tend to do a little bit of research. Do you like research? I do like research and specifically some turtle research.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

We've done lots with turtles at my house, so I heard that Leslie's a turtle expert.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

The turtle whisperer from North Webster. Camp Crosley's been important in your family, in your life. Tell us why so.

Speaker 3:

I came to this area right after college to be a summer camp counselor at Camp Crosley, and I was lucky enough to meet my husband there.

Speaker 1:

Ah, Camp Crosley is on Tippecanoe Lake.

Speaker 2:

Little Tippie, little Tippie A little love on the lake.

Speaker 1:

That is exciting, Leslie. So you met your husband there. He was a camp counselor too.

Speaker 3:

He worked there full time. Okay yeah, but he used to be a counselor the summer before, and so now you guys are living near the camp.

Speaker 1:

at the camp we do live at the camp. Yes, With your kiddos.

Speaker 3:

Yes, we do. Adam is the maintenance supervisor there and with that position they had the ability to give us a home to live on as well.

Speaker 1:

So the boys are very lucky to be able to live at such a pretty place. So when did your love for turtles start?

Speaker 3:

Well, I always liked turtles as a child. It's become more excessive here recently. Even as a little girl, my mother would always be the person who would stop on the side of the road oh, let's help this turtle cross the road. We always had talks about that as a child. But when we moved to Camp Crosley two summers ago, we got to experience for the first time turtles coming out of the lake and meandering all over our yards to find a spot to lay their eggs. So experience for the first time turtles coming out of the lake and meandering all over our yards to find a spot to lay their eggs so that was the first time in my life that I've got to experience that, which I think is really cool to experience it with my children too, so we're all kind of learning about it Through that.

Speaker 3:

It started to, you know I would notice that the nests were starting to be destroyed by raccoons the next morning, when it would just be really well, it upset me, but my boys definitely were so mad at, oh, those raccoons. But then we had that conversation well, they need to eat as well. But what can we do? Which got us to research. So went online and found that you can make turtle nest protectors Just using two by fours, some chicken wire and some nails, and we were able to build them together. So then it became our family project. So, as the turtles would lay eggs, the boys and I would walk around and spot where did the mothers go, and once they were finished and they covered them all all up, we would, while they're walking away, go cover them up and place rocks on top, just to make sure the raccoons weren't getting all of the nests.

Speaker 1:

And then how long do you leave that protection up?

Speaker 3:

So I leave them all year. Sometimes, if the weather isn't warm enough, they wouldn't hatch, and through research it said if they don't hatch before a certain time I think it was September or the end of August that they can winter underground and they will reemerge in early spring. So last year was the first year we were able to experience that we were able to find at least four baby turtles. When we weren't looking for them, they would just start walking by our house, and so the fact that we got to see some of you know the labor of love that we had see some of them make it to the water, was just kind of that.

Speaker 2:

Yes, we did it in the next spring?

Speaker 1:

yes, wow, wow, you had no idea. That's really cool. I I didn't either amazing what research can. Yes, it is. What direction it can take you in. Yeah, so um, now that you're part of the Lilly Center, first of all explain how you are part of the Lilly Center through your aquarium.

Speaker 3:

Yes. So the Lilly Center got a hold of us and asked if were able to come in and give lessons to all the classes different age appropriate lessons about different things, explaining the lake ecosystem as well as just understanding fish that we have in our lakes. So through that program the kids were able to experience a lot of different things and it was really cool to see and even several of the teachers loved to see the direct correlation that the program had with the curriculum that they were expected to teach. Especially, kindergarten was one where one of the kindergarten teachers came directly and like oh, this is perfect, we're working on able to labeling diagrams and that's exactly what they're doing connecting the gills to the gills, the picture of the fish. So it was just wonderful to see that we were able to not only work on what teachers were expected to teach but also using, you know, natural things that are here in our environment.

Speaker 1:

So that's a little bit of what you call lake literacy, isn't it, Nate?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Why is that important?

Speaker 2:

So water literacy we want to see grow with our kids and our community, so as our kids' generation becomes the leaders and decision makers of the future, they already have that basic knowledge of our aquatic ecosystems lakes, streams, wetlands, those sorts of things so they understand turtles and the importance of turtles, they understand the importance of taking care of these aquatic systems and so they're even better cared for in the future.

Speaker 1:

What's your favorite part about helping kids learn about lakes and turtles and the aquariums that you have at the library?

Speaker 3:

I just thought it was fun. A lot of the kids became very curious about learning about the types of fish that we had in the aquarium. So they would be asking can I find a book on a perch, or do we have books about the largemouth bass that we had in the tank? And that was just fun to be able to get them to be interested in learning more about animals that we have here.

Speaker 2:

I remember in the early years of the Lilly Center when we first started our aquarium program and we started with putting these aquariums in classrooms. So it was the Lake in the Classroom program and we still do that as well in classrooms. So it was the lake in the classroom program and we still do that as well. And we would send along a small stack of books along with each aquarium. And we heard that from teachers like hey, this really drives students to have a curiosity and want to learn from specifically nonfiction books, because kids, younger kids, often will love the fiction books but nonfiction it's a little stale, a little boring, but they would be so curious and stuff.

Speaker 3:

So I can only imagine then, with the Lake in the Library program, now with all of these books surrounding the aquarium, that that's even a better context for learning. Oh yeah, it even got to the point where sometimes students would even say, hey, can we read to the fish?

Speaker 1:

So that was really cute.

Speaker 3:

Especially some kindergartners would love that. You know, at the public library they allow some of them to read with a dog, and so I thought it was really cute that they wanted to also read with our fish, so some of them would choose to, which was really cute, since they're practicing learning to read as well.

Speaker 1:

So, Leslie, you were sharing before we started about how the curriculum that you're helping with matches the curriculum for each class. It doesn't surprise me because intentionally you made that as part of the Lakes in the Classroom, Lakes in the Library program of the Lakes in the Classroom, Lakes in the Library program.

Speaker 2:

And did I hear that you won an award for that? Yeah, so you're right. Our education team at the Lilly Center is pretty amazing, headed up by Sarah and Grace and Ariel do great work, as well as our students that work underneath them, and they do when they develop these new lesson plans, new programs like Lake in the Library. They connect all of those things to our Indiana state standards which the teachers are accountable for in our state to teach in their curriculum, and so it's perfectly mapped out and it's good to hear that teachers are noticing that. And speaking of awards you asked about that A few years back we received the Governor's Award for the top environmental education program in the state of Indiana. Super, yeah, pretty proud about that.

Speaker 1:

And I think that it might help teachers make their job a little bit easier on a topic that can be kind of dry. You know we've heard people say things like science was dull and boring not to us geeky people that like science right or research but thank you for doing that. That is an exciting opportunity for our teachers and the kiddos in our community. There is one thing I want to ask you about. You implemented something called tank safety in the library. Yes, do you want to share a bit about what tank safety was? I think we could take a good lesson from that.

Speaker 3:

Excellent.

Speaker 3:

Well, when the Lilly Center first brought us the tank to stay in the library for the year, students were all super excited to go see the fish first, and so, as they started to kind of, you know, run towards the tank, we had to stop and talk about some tank safety.

Speaker 3:

So I made the students kind of take some time to think about how they felt when they first came to school. Some of them kind of pointed out oh, I felt really shy, a little nervous, a little scared. So we tried to remind them that, well, the fish kind of feel the same way right now. They don't know you and there's a lot of you and we're being really loud and excited right now, um, so we need to give them some of that space, kind of like we asked you to give space for your friends in class, um, and so, and another thing we pointed out was making sure that we're not right up against the tank, um, since they need some areas to hide as well, and then not tapping the tank, as that can be very they can startle them as well, kind of like somebody you know tapping at you leslie, you talked about um helping kids in the classroom learn, but I think that you've got a really good experience in your family.

Speaker 1:

Tell us about how you're working with your kiddos, not just in creating turtle egg protection cases, but helping your kiddos learn about the environment and the lakes.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so even living at camp, we've talked a lot with the boys. You know, I remember growing up and we would often skip rocks on the water and the boys like to do that too, and I think that's just something all kids like to do. But it's led to having conversations with my boys about hey, well, let's think about where should those rocks be? What's the purpose of those rocks?

Speaker 3:

Yes, there are some rocks in the lake. We've had that conversation, but we really should leave kind of nature the way that it is, so we're not leaving all of our footprints a little bit as well. As you know, we always have those conversations about we want to make sure we don't litter as well, but sometimes the boys, especially with their daddy being the maintenance supervisor at camp, we always look at it as, oh, whenever we see trash, we really should take the time to pick that up as well and then just make sure we wash our hands, just because we're going to be saving not only the animals that might be in our lakes or the squirrels that are in the area, but also just helping nature to keep doing its thing without human interference so, nate?

Speaker 1:

we've talked about other things weeds, fish, water. We haven't talked about why turtles are important to the ecosystem of the lakes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so turtles are going to be an important kind of link in the ecosystem of our lakes, and partly because of them being omnivores, and so they're going to be eating both plants and also other animals I'm glad you explained omnivore Do it again Plants and and other animals.

Speaker 2:

So an herbivore would be just eating plants, carnivore would be just eating animals, but an omnivore would be eating both of those, and so turtles will eat some of the aquatic plants that are in our lakes and in our streams, our ponds, our wetlands, but they'll also eat other animals, and so some of the bigger snapping turtles, for example, might eat small ducklings that are going through the water. Maybe that's not a really nice thought to think about, but it is part of the ecosystem.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they'll eat fish and insects and snails, sometimes other smaller turtles and so, yeah, they're eating both plants and animals.

Speaker 1:

What eats turtles?

Speaker 2:

Well, if they're a small turtle, if they're still in the egg, then they're prey as Leslie has been talking about for raccoons and foxes. Skunks can dig them up as well when they are still small. Yet they can be pretty easy prey for a bird maybe. Or, like I said, other larger turtles might eat them. When they get to be good size, then there's very little that would eat the turtle at that point.

Speaker 1:

that would eat the turtle. At that point, leslie, tell us a bit more about the research that you're doing, either in the classroom or with your kiddos, about turtles.

Speaker 3:

Kind of. Even my boys kind of started that After we started to protect the nest, the boys were asking well, how long are we going to see the babies hatch? And so that led us to, oh well, let's kind of look it online and you find a variety of information. So then we said, well, let's go to the public library and we found a couple books there as well, and so we researched kind of how long does it take for the eggs to hatch?

Speaker 3:

Incubate yeah incubate, yeah, and then when will they hatch? Then it even got to. The boys were like, oh, that's the neatest one, since it's got like a neck, like a snake, which I did not enjoy but they loved it To finding like the largest tortoises that you could find, like the Galapagos tortoise, and so it just kind of became it's becoming a love for not only me but my boys as well.

Speaker 1:

So red-eared sliders live around here. What other kinds of turtles live in our area?

Speaker 2:

Well, snapping turtles would be one that gets pretty large Painter turtles We've had map turtles that we've seen before as well.

Speaker 1:

What is map turtle?

Speaker 2:

Well they, as the name would suggest, have little lines that kind of resemble a map.

Speaker 1:

On the shell.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then a red ear slider has a dark shell.

Speaker 3:

It kind of a lot of time that we see them with mud on their shells, so it's kind of hard sometimes to see their coloring. But on the side of their faces you can see some of the red and some like yellow veins, almost looking kind of like they've been painted on their faces, but usually there's like a red band that I'm seeing on them, unless they're painted turtles as well, and they could be.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, could be a variety. Red ear slider would have that red ear spot, that's kind of unique to it.

Speaker 1:

So when I was a kid, we talked about leatherback turtles. Do we have those here?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Also known as soft shell turtles, and we've got those in our lakes as well. Yeah, and as the name would suggest, their shell is a little bit more flexible. It would kind of feel like your fingernail more than a snapping turtle shell Although I don't suggest you try to touch a snapping turtle shell, but it would feel much harder to you than what a soft-shelled turtle shell would feel.

Speaker 1:

Snapping turtles can do quite a bit of damage to a person if they would be bitten by one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, their mouths are pretty strong. I was just picking one up, uh, in our yard, coming up to to lay eggs and, uh, it got into our pasture where our dog was and our dog she was barking at it and it wasn't a good place to lay eggs and so I was moving it off to the side and it was definitely trying to bite me the entire time.

Speaker 1:

So moving it off to the side and it was definitely trying to bite me the entire time. So, leslie, you talked about when you were a kid, your mom taught you about stopping and helping turtles in the road. So what are some guidelines that you would give to people that were in that kind of situation? They want to help a turtle.

Speaker 3:

Well, so one thing that my mom always reiterated was you want to make sure you move them in the direction that they're already walking. They already have like their own mind, they know where they want to go, but because they are slower and sometimes they just need that little extra help to get across the road safely, so you want to move them in the direction that they were already traveling. But then, when you're finished with it we had a side conversation earlier as well, as I experienced it once with my boys watching me move a turtle we've learned to add the instruction of moving them to the side, holding them to the side when you're walking them across the road, so you don't get any of their bodily fluids on you, as sometimes they become scared.

Speaker 3:

So the boys had a great giggle at mommy's expense on that one, but also when you're finished making sure you wash your hands thoroughly, just because they can carry some diseases.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a good point.

Speaker 1:

What kind of diseases might a turtle have that might impact human health?

Speaker 3:

Salmonella, I believe, is one of the most, I guess, common ones that they can carry.

Speaker 1:

Aside from a predator that might eat a turtle, are there hazards that turtles need to watch out for? Are there things that we can do to help turtles?

Speaker 2:

Well, I would think, across the streets, as you already mentioned, their nests are common preyed upon by predators, and so helping out that I know in this area not as much trouble with these species that we've talked about as being endangered, but in other parts of the world you've got sea turtles which are threatened or endangered. I remember my wife and I were on a beach in Costa Rica one time and got to see sea turtles emerging up out of the sand and then scurrying down to the shore. That was a highlight of that trip and they had similar to what you were talking about, leslie. They had these little areas around to keep any predators away and they would usually have a little plaque on it which said when the eggs were laid, when they're expected to be hatched, and then people would keep an eye out and just shine red lights when you're walking around them. So it's not to mess up the turtle's sense of direction with the moon and stuff like that.

Speaker 1:

So, leslie, you did talk about helping your kiddos understand the importance of picking up garbage when they see. Uh, I was specifically thinking about, is there a propensity for turtles to be impacted by trash along roads or, you know, might they try to eat something that they shouldn't because somebody threw something away?

Speaker 3:

I think so. I would think, just like any animal sometimes might try to test what it is. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I could see them trying to bite one. But we even have, you know, areas of trash like the plastic rings, yes, that hold you know your six pack of pop together. You know, I know they talk about like in in the ocean. Sometimes those can make it into the water and they can get caught on different animals and I've seen that. I would think that could happen even here in our lakes as well if we left those kind of on the ground as well.

Speaker 1:

So we need to be careful about our trash. We need to point a turtle crossing the road in the same direction it was going. We need to. What else do we need to?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think a big part of helping turtles is their habitat. We've talked a lot about that on this podcast series is thinking about wetlands and how can we care for wetlands and protect wetlands in our area, our lakes and streams as well, allowing those to be clean. At the Lilly Center, we say clean, healthy, safe and beautiful. Clean, healthy, safe and beautiful lake is going to be a good lake for a turtle to live in, and so that goal, as we see movement in that direction, we'll see better habitats for our turtles too.

Speaker 1:

Great Leslie. Is there anything else that you'd like us to know about you, or about turtles, or about, maybe, your other hobby of researching?

Speaker 3:

bats, oh yes, so another area of nature that I'm becoming rather fond of protecting is bats. So, living at Camp Crosley and right off of a lake, there is a large amount of mosquitoes and as much as they are pesky for us when they bite, but it's also just kind of irritating and then researching well, what can you kind of do besides, you know, adding chemicals to treat for mosquitoes? We found out bats are kind of the number one predator for mosquitoes, and so we've started to invest in getting some bat houses at our house, and for the first time this year we were able to get some bats in our bat houses.

Speaker 3:

That's been a fun experience to kind of watch and just kind of listen to them chirp a little bit here and there and once we've had some of their heads, you know, hanging out of the bat house as well. So that's been fun just to see experience from a safe, safe aspect. But it's just really neat to know that we have some natural things that kind of help us fight some of our pests.

Speaker 2:

Did you know, Susie, that I like to explore caves in southern Indiana? I did not know that that's one of my hobbies is spelunking, and I love seeing the Indiana brown bat in those caves, and we have those around here as well, either in bat houses or shag bark. Hickory trees are another good habitat for bats up under the bark in different spots, and so, yeah, bats are a really cool part of our ecosystems here in indiana so so, being a doctor of limnology and caving, are you exploring caves with lakes?

Speaker 2:

Yes, many of our caves in Indiana are what we call wet caves, and so they'll have a stream that flows through them and some areas of ponding and stuff like that. I really enjoy taking students on adventures in caves and it's an aquatic ecosystem, just like wetlands and streams and lakes, and so it's really fun.

Speaker 1:

Cool, I am glad that you are paying attention to bats and turtles and that you like caves. I'll stay home and listen to birds in my wetlands. Leslie, thank you very much for being here today. We sure have enjoyed learning about your research with turtles and about your family and the efforts that you're making to protect turtle eggs. Even learning about bats has been fun, so thanks very much for joining us. Make sure you stay tuned. We have an exciting segment coming up.

Speaker 2:

Hey, there, I'm Dr Nate Bosch, and with me here today is.

Speaker 4:

Hi, I'm Emily.

Speaker 2:

Emily works at the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams. Tell us about your role at the Lilly Center.

Speaker 4:

So I'm a college student in studying environmental science and I work on the education team here at the Lilly Center. I've gotten to work there for three years and I really love getting to talk to kids, whether it's in class or outside or even in their own libraries.

Speaker 2:

And that's what we're going to talk about today is our Lake in the Library program. Tell us a little bit about that program and how it works.

Speaker 4:

Yes, our Lakes in the Library program is one of my favorites. In this program we have collaborated with different elementary schools and our own aquarium team. What we do is we provide 40 gallon aquariums to different elementary schools here in Kosciuszko County. With us today we have a 10 gallon, but you're gonna have to use your imagination to pretend it's 40 gallons. Here with us today, we have one of those fish tanks. It's really cool because we get to use this fish tank as a focal point to talk to the kids about different environmental concepts that help them become water literate citizens and be good stewards of the really cool community around us. The particular lesson we're going to talk about today with you guys is the one that we use with a lot of our fourth graders. In this lesson we introduce the kids to the aquarium and we talk about the filters in our aquarium.

Speaker 4:

With our filter, we have four main parts that we talk to the kids about. We have a heavy black base that keeps the filter back in the corner of the tank. Inside the base we have four main parts that we talk to the kids about. We have a heavy black base that keeps the filter back in the corner of the tank. Inside the base we have a core that connects the rest of the pieces. We have this sponge connected to our core and our base and it kind of feels like a kitchen sponge that you might use to clean your sink, but it's doing an important job. Our filter also has an air tube that pumps in air. The air helps the filter start absorbing the water and pumping the water through this sponge, and that's how we can start cleaning the water. What's really awesome is our filters help take out the things we don't want in our fish tanks. For example, we don't want extra food, we don't want extra fish waste, we don't want any dangerous chemicals and we don't want any decaying organic material in there.

Speaker 2:

Decaying organic material, as the name would suggest, is decaying organic material. Organic material are things that once were living and now they're starting to decompose or decay. So in an aquarium like this, or even in a lake, we could have feces from the fish, we could have little bits of plants that break off and then they start to decay. That would be decaying organic material. It could be a little zooplankton or an algal cell, a phytoplankton cell that dies and it starts to decompose. That decaying organic material starts to then eventually give off nutrients as it decays.

Speaker 2:

Things like nitrogen. One type of nitrogen, ammonia, that comes off pretty quick in the decaying process can be toxic to things like these fish in this aquarium. So as those ammonia levels start to grow, the fish can start to get sick, and so there's bacteria that live in those filters that are called nitrifying bacteria, and they're actually moving from ammonia to nitrite and then eventually to nitrate. So ammonia is NH3, moves to nitrite, no2, and then eventually to nitrate NO3. And NO3 is not toxic to the fish like the ammonia is, and so moving it in that direction makes the water healthier for the fish to live in it, and those nitrifying bacteria live in nature as well.

Speaker 4:

So the reason why we teach kids about filters is because we can make the analogy between the artificial filters and their artificial aquariums to the real-life filters that we see in our environment. Here in Kosciuszko County we have a lot of real-life filters and we call those wetlands.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so wetlands. Sometimes we call them sponges or kidneys. It gets at the fact that wetlands, in terms of water, will absorb water and then slowly release it. You can almost think of a sponge. Emily mentioned a sponge in the kitchen. You could have a sponge that you get filled up with water and you set it on the counter and slowly, over time, maybe, a little puddle starts to develop where that water is slowly seeping back out of the sponge. Initially it soaks it all up and then it gives it back off slowly.

Speaker 2:

That's what our wetlands do in nature, and so we have a big snow event that then melts and a big runoff event. As a result. We might have a big thunderstorm that moves through, and so we're going to let that water come into the natural environment a little bit more slowly, into a receiving body of water like a lake or stream. It's also like a kidney. A wetland can absorb and filter out toxins, just like kidneys filter out things in our body that are not helpful to us, and so in the environment and in our fish tanks we have these filters.

Speaker 4:

It's really helpful to have both filters in our environment and in our wetlands because, like Dr Bosch said, they help keep our ecosystems nice and clean.

Speaker 2:

So, emily, in an aquarium like this, what happens if we have too many nutrients like those ammonia and nitrate?

Speaker 4:

If we have, too many nutrients, it's not going to be the best conditions for our fish. If there's too many chemicals like that's not going to be the best conditions for our fish. If there's too many chemicals like that ammonia, it can chemically burn the fish if there's too much of it present in the water. So when we have too many nutrients it can hurt the fish. It can also cause an excess growth of algae and we would see algae start to grow all over the sides and surfaces of our aquarium. Since our aquariums are like models of real life lakes, what happened to those lakes when they also have excess nutrients present?

Speaker 2:

So some of the same things happen in our lakes. When we get excess nutrients, Primarily we're looking at phosphorus often in our lakes and when we get more phosphorus coming in we get more algae growing, just like in an aquarium and a lake. Same sort of thing. Sometimes that algae can be toxin producing algae and can be harmful to people and their pets. Also, excess phosphorus can cause a lot of weeds to grow, kind of like what we have here in our aquarium, but it can start to fill the whole water column and kind of choke out other things in our local lakes and make it hard to recreate in our lakes as well. So the moral of the story is that we love wetlands. Wetlands help keep water pure and clean as it moves into our lakes and streams, Just like in our aquariums. We love those filters because those help keep the water clean, keep our fish healthy and have great programs like our Lake in the Library program.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lake Doctor podcast. Join us next time. It's bound to be fun.

Speaker 2:

Listening to this podcast is just the first step to making your lake cleaner and healthier. Visit lakesgraceedu for more information about our applied research and discover some tangible ways you can make a difference on your lake we'll see you next time.

Speaker 1:

The doctor is in.