Ecosystem services and water testing in Pocatello

The ecosystem services I value the most are the cultural services. I do a lot of hiking and a lot of nature photography, so my watershed provides me with recreation opportunities. I also use our watershed for examples in my classes, and to help me learn more about the natural world around us. The photo shows an area where I was hiking just two days ago.

For about ten years, I used water quality testing as a major part of the sophomore biology classes I taught (I don’t teach those classes anymore). Every October and April, we would go to the Portneuf River and test a number of biological, physical, and chemical parameters of the river, both where it entered and where it left the city. We regularly found problems with fecal coliform, high phosphates, and high turbidity. We usually only found limited macroinvertebrates in the water, though there was more variety at our site before the river enters the concrete channel that passes through town.

The last time I had a class test the Portneuf was about 13 years ago. Unfortunately, it seems that the Portneuf River hasn’t changed much. It still is channelized and still is cloudy. The city is pushing to make the river healthier and more natural, but progress is slow.