Articles - Bull Shoals-White River State Park
« Back to Article List
The Interpretive Perspective: Netting an Education on the White River
Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism
Stewart Carlton, 27, was on his way to becoming a high school teacher. But while earning a bachelors in biology education at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, something happened. "While I was working on that degree, I was working with the state parks during the summer months," Carlton said. "I started doing some seasonal interpretation for the state parks, and really just fell in love with it. I changed my whole mind about what I wanted to do."
After graduating college in 1998, Carlton became a full-time interpreter at Parkin Archeological State Park, and eventually found his niche at Bull Shoals-White River State Park, where he's been since April of 2000.
Like most state parks, Bull Shoals offers a wide variety of interpretive programs, but given his love of biology and education, it's no surprise that one of Carlton's favorites, "What Lives in the River," focuses on both.
About the River Program
Although the following program is often provided for adults, Carlton said schoolchildren and groups such as Boy and Girl Scouts make up his typical audience.
"The purpose of this program is to determine the relative health of the river, and we do that by analyzing the types and number of organisms we capture in the river.
 |
| What Lives in the River? |
"We take a kick net, which is one meter square, out into the river's current. It's called a kick net because you stand upstream from the net and disturb the rocks and substrate of the river bottom where all of these small, teeny-tiny aquatic organisms live -- aquatic insects and crustaceans. They're super small, and you could walk over thousands of them out there in the river and never even know they are there, unless you take the time to slow down and look.
"So I kick my feet and stir up these organisms, and then the current carries them into the net where they are trapped. If we're doing it in a purely scientific manner, I'll do three different samples in three different places. But for the kids, we usually just do one sample in one location. That's usually good enough to get the idea across.
"From there we bring the kick net onto the riverbank. Then I almost turn it over to the kids. I'll give them books that have pictures of each of the organisms we're likely to catch. And from there they start using tweezers and magnifying glasses to identify the creatures by comparing them to the picture books. That in turn gives them the name of the critter, and on the back of the picture there are key things to look at -- head size, how many legs does it have, does it have antennas -- a written description.
"From there we just start to sample out the different organisms and get an idea of what we've caught -- keeping in mind the true theme of this whole program. It's not just about catching things or learning the names of what we've caught -- the key focus of this program is to determine the relative health of the river. And the way we do that is we look at the different critters we've caught and put them into three different categories. They are classified either into a tolerant category, a somewhat tolerant category or an intolerant category. And that tolerance has to do with tolerance to pollution. So we add up all the organisms found that fit into each category."
What are typical findings?
"Mainly, the only species we find are ones that are tolerant or somewhat tolerant to pollution. That's a dead give-away that there is at least some pollution in the river. We find organisms like sow bugs, scuds, worms, snails ... We normally only find about three or four different species, where in a really healthy watershed, we'd find 12 to 15 different species. So when they see that we really don't have a big diversity of organisms here, it starts to sink in that this water really isn't as clean as they thought it was. The kids are surprised because the White River is so crystal clear and looks so clean, and they just don't have any idea that there's pollution in the river -- because you can't see it. It's invisible."
What causes the pollution?
"The fact that the White River is a large watershed, means it's already traveled over two hundred and fifty miles before it gets to us at the state park. I show them a map that shows where the White River has been. It starts way over in northwest Arkansas, which is becoming more and more industrialized and is one of the fastest-growing areas in Arkansas. I show where the river then flows into Missouri, right past Branson, which is another heavily populated area. And we talk about all the possible sources of pollution. As far as industrial, as far as all the farmlands -- run-off from pig farms, chicken farms, cattle farms and so on and so forth. So they get an idea of possibly where those pollutants are entering the water. But our goal is not to identify specific pollutants."
Any other factors in the findings?
"Not only is there pollution in the form of chemicals in the river, there's also pollution in the form of water temperature -- cold water. The fact that we're on the tail waters of Bull Shoals dam -- the temperature of water coming out of that dam is 48 Fahrenheit year-round. That's fine and dandy up north where you have lots of organisms specifically adapted to colder temperatures. But here in Arkansas, when you introduce water that cold, you just don't find that much diversity. You wouldn't even have that much diversity in fish -- to speak of -- if we hadn't introduced trout. But overall, it's still a very clean river. The point is it's not as pristine as we think it is."
What is your audience most surprised to learn?
"Other than the fact that there is some pollution in these clear waters, they are surprised by the fact that there are so many small organisms living in the river. They're in there literally by the trillions, and we'll capture hundreds in our kick net."
If you go
"If you come to the park specifically for this program, I encourage you to wear appropriate dress -- waders if you have them. Anything that will make you more comfortable when you go out in the river. In other words, don't wear your Sunday best. Wear something you can get a little dirty in. If you're not a hands-on type of individual, you can learn just as much by sitting back and watching, though. But I don't think you'll have as much fun.
 |
| Camping at Bull Shoals-White River |
"And whether or not you participate in an interpretive program, bring your fishing pole when you come to Bull Shoals. You don't want to miss the trout fishing."
Other programs of interest at the park?
"The biggest draw we have here is the White River. So most of our programs focus on it in one way or another. And the biggest draw is trout fishing. So we capitalize on it by offering a lot of trout-related programs. We offer beginning trout fisherman classes. If you've never been trout fishing a day in your life, you can sit in on one of our classes and get up to speed as far as what sort of gear you need, what kind of bait to use, how to bait up and so on and so forth. And we also offer a fly fishing class, which is turning into a pretty popular class. We take folks who've never been fly fishing, and within an hour's time, they'll be doing it.
"Also, in January, our big push is on the bald eagles that have migrated and are staying on the lake and on the river. We'll have what's called Eagle Awareness Weekend January 11 and 12. We'll have lectures and demonstrations from visiting ornithologists. The Little Rock Zoo will bring out a live, mature bald eagle and lots of other birds of prey found in Arkansas, along with about every kind of owl that hoots. Last year, the event drew more than a 1,000 visitors."
Useful information
Interpretive programs at Bull Shoals, including the "What Lives in the River" presentation, are provided daily April through October. However, Carlton emphasized he often "takes the show on the road and into classrooms" during colder months. Also, Carlton pointed out his willingness to "tailor" a program to accommodate the educational curriculum of teachers or Scout leaders, or even the wants of campers at Bull Shoals.
Cost to participate in all of the interpretive programs at Bull Shoals is free, except that lake cruises during the Eagle Awareness Weekend cost $5.50 per adult and $2.75 per child. For more information on interpretive programs at Bull Shoals, call (870) 431-5521, or visit the Bull Shoals-White River State Park page.
- Contact Information
- 153 Dam Overlook Lane
Bull Shoals, AR 72619
- Email: bullshoalswhiteriver@arkansas.com)
- 870-445-3629
- ArkansasStateParks.com
State Parks:
Visit Our Other Arkansas State Parks & Tourism Websites