Several cottonwood trees have fallen across Poplar creek, behind Elgin High School. Brittney Mallen says it’s been happening more and more these past few years.
“We lose about at least two or three every year, it would seem, right now," said Mallen. She’s an environmental science teacher at the school.
Those fallen trees are a symptom of larger ecological issues, like erosion happening to the creek. Issues that students like Aarav Patel have studied for a community service project.
“Here you see the stream [flow] underneath the bank. There’s a ton of erosion underneath, so there’s kind of an overhang of land, and that kind of just destabilizes that bank," said Patel. "So, all of these trees and all that dirt keeps falling in the water, and it just makes the water quality worse and makes the entire area less stable.”
They’ve tested water quality, sediment and pollutant levels and found high levels of dissolved oxygen and copper. They also wade into the stream to track macro-invertebrates in the water.
“We take out these big nets, go in the water, kind of kick up some dirt, and see what we can kind of catch to look at and then we release them back in the water. You find things as small as a little mayfly or as big as a crayfish," said Patel. "I think that’s one of the biggest issues with erosion: when you get a lot more of these pollutants in the water, these animals just can’t survive anymore. So, year after year, you see less and less in population numbers.”
Elgin High School students have been running these experiments and conservation efforts on the creek for decades. And because the Elgin’s environmental classes have run experiments here for so long, they can compare their data to previous years and analyze trends.
Mallen, herself, went to Elgin High School and conducted similar water studies of Poplar creek. She says that experience, and her teachers, inspired her to come back to teach and continue this work.
But, she says her environmental classes aren’t just observing, they’re trying to mitigate the problems.
“We do invasive removal. They use tools in the woods and cut down mostly buckthorn and honeysuckle, so they remove that," she said. "Then, in the spring, we buy as many native plants and trees as we can afford with our budgets.”
They recently planted a bunch of swamp white oak trees near the creek. But now that the erosion is getting worse, they just don’t have the resources to get at the root of the issues.
That’s why students like Hasan Hammad gave public comments at a recent U-46 school board meeting, asking the district to step in to help restore the creek.
“The scale of the damage requires the expertise of environmental professionals who have the tools and knowledge necessary to be able to implement effective and lasting solutions," said Hammad, at the meeting.
That could mean re-planting native trees and re-stabilizing the bank. Students like Hammad outlined their research findings and made the case for why the creek is so important to the school.
“A more stable creek will help minimize the effects of flooding and also protect biodiversity," said Hammad. "Additionally, students at the school, just like us, use this creek to get hands-on learning experiences in environmental science, which makes it an invaluable resource to us.”
Jacob Lesch is another student. He says someone from the school board did reach out after their public comment.
“We had a few emails just saying that they really valued our response, but, since that, we haven’t gotten a direct response yet, but we’re still waiting," he said.
Mallen says they just wanted to bring awareness to the issue and don’t expect immediate action, but her class is hopeful that the district will take saving the creek seriously.
They say if the problems persist, it won’t just hurt the creek’s ecosystem, it’ll hurt the school ecosystem. And rob future science students of a hands-on learning lab running right through their backyard.
