Fort Attaway adopts Little Dry Creek

In February 2008 we joined with the Coosa River Basin Initiative (CRBI) and Berry College students for a clean up of Little Dry Creek. Little Dry Creek lies at the foot of Fort Attaway, and it empties into the Oostanaula River. The creek would have been an important water source for the soldiers in the fort. Fort Attaway's fortifications stretched along the ridge that runs from the Oostanaula River to the Coosa River and several of these military earthworks can still be seen along the ridge today.

In March 2008, I, (Cailey Chase - Little Dave's wife) participated in a water testing class given by the CRBI guy, David Promis, and now I am certified with the Georgia Adopt-A-Stream program to monitor the creek for temperature, pH and Dissolved Oxygen. Little Dry Creek is in need of a lot of love and attention. It is a thoroughfare for many animals here in Rome. So far we have seen deer, red foxes, groundhogs, many different species of water birds, perching birds and birds of prey and several different species of fish! There are many tires that have been thrown into this creek over the years, and a lot of litter such as Styrofoam and plastic drink bottles washes down from the streets and neighborhoods the creek flows through.

Anyone interested in helping us monitor and clean up Little Dry Creek please contact us by E-mail or telephone (706) 234-0537. We'd love to meet you and share in this very important task of cleaning up our water way! If you need to do community service hours give us a call, we are a non-profit.

The black X marks the monitoring site for Little Dry Creek where it dumps into the Oostanaula River.
Pictures of Monitoring site.

Cailey's shallow water testing kit
(on loan from CRBI)

The red stick is for gathering the water sample. The bottles on left of the kit are for testing the
Dissolved Oxygen levels, the thermometer is the blue thing in the clear tube,
the black square thing on the right is used for testing the pH level.

Produced by:
Fort Attaway Preservation Society, Inc.
1202 Desoto Avenue, Rome, GA 30165 (706)234-0537
f_marlin@att.net

Monitoring the temperature, Dissolved Oxygen and pH levels in Little Dry Creek, Rome, GA - Floyd County
Date & Conditions	Temperature	Dissolved Oxygen (DO) Levels of 5 to 6ppm are usually required for growth and activity.	pH A pH range of 6.5 to 8.2 is optimal for most aquatic organisms.	Animals and activity seen:
Tue, Jun. 10, 2008 11:30 a.m. Bright and sunny, no rain for a couple of weeks.	Air: 29^oC / 84.2^oF Water: 26^oC/78.8^oF	4.1 ppm	7.5	Minnows, water beetles, dragon flies, 1 very large fish, snake ~24", groundhog
Tue, Jun. 17, 2008 12:00 p.m. Bright and sunny, no rain for a couple of weeks.	Air: 29^oC / 84.2^oF Water: 26^oC/78.8^oF	3.0 ppm	7.5	Carcass of groundhog, heard woodpecker, minnows, dragonflies, hawk
Tue, Jun. 24, 2008 12:00 p.m. Bright and sunny, intermittent rain over the past week	Air: 26^oC/78.8^oF Water: 23^oC/73.4^oF	2.0 ppm	7.2	Minnows, water bugs, 1 sm. fish jump, dragonflies
Tue, Jul. 1, 2008 12:00 p.m. Bright, sunny & cool, Heavy rain storm two days ago (Sunday).	Air: 26^oC/78.8^oF Water: 22^oC/71.6^oF	1.1 ppm	7.2	Minnows, dragonflies, cardinals, nuthatches, smelled a skunk
Tue, Jul. 8, 2008 12:00 p.m. Bright, sunny & hot. No rain. It was a good day for bird watching.	Air: 35^oC/95^oF Water: 24^oC/75.2^oF	2.4 ppm	7.5	3 deer, minnows, dragonflies, American Bittern, Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron
Tue, Jul. 15, 2008 12:00 p.m.	Did not test
Tue, Jul. 22, 2008 12:00 p.m. Bright, sunny & hot. No rain.	Air: 37^oC/98.6^oF Water: 26^oC/78.8^oF	2.6 ppm	7.2	Heard a hawk, minnows, dragonflies, small fish, Common Clearwing (moth) sippin' on some thistle nectar.
Tue, Jul. 29, 2008 12:30 p.m. Bright, sunny & hot. No rain.	Air: 31^oC/87.8^oF Water: 26^oC/78.8^oF	3.0 ppm	7.5	Met Bill Ford there at the creek; he brings his kids and kids from his neighborhood all the way from Fortune St. to Little Dry Creek to fish. So far they have caught Brim, Crappie, Large Mouth Bass and Carp. They caught a Brim while I was there! He told me that what I've been calling minnows are actually Mosquito fish (minnows) Saw aVelvet Ant (aka "Cow Killer")
Tue, Aug. 5, 2008 12:30 p.m. Bright, sunny & hot. No rain.	Air: 30^oC/86^oF Water: 27^oC/80.6^oF	4.5 ppm	7.5	Saw 1 fish about 5-6 inches and 3 or 4 fish about 4 inches long.
Tue, Aug.12, 2008 12:00 p.m. Overcast & cool, No rain.	Air: 25^oC/77^oF Water: 20^oC/68^oF	4.0 ppm	7.5	Minnows/Guppies, Juvenile and Mama Red Foxes
Tue, Aug.19, 2008 12:30 p.m. Sunny & cool, No rain	Air: 28^oC/82.4^oF Water: 26^oC/78.8^oF	6.7 ppm	7.5	Minnows/Guppies, Dragonflies, log jam under Norfolk Southern railroad bridge that crosses over the Oostanaula River
Tue, Aug. 26,2008 1:00 p.m. 2" of rain in last 24 hours, still cloudy & sprinkling	Air: 25^oC/77^oF Water: 23^oC/73.4^oF	6.3 ppm	7.2	Norfolk Southern were clearing the log jam from under their railroad bridge that crosses the Oostanaula River. Little Dry Creek was high after the 2" of rain we got from Tropical Storm/Depression Fay.
Tue, Sept. 2, 2008 12:30 p.m. Hot, partly cloudy. No rain.	Air: 27^oC/80.6^oF Water: 26^oC/78.8^oF	5.1 ppm	7.2	Grasshoppers, mosquitoes, minnows/guppies.
Tue, Sept. 9, 2008 12:30 p.m. Rain 2". Cloudy	Air: 25^oC/77^oF Water: 23^oC/73.4^oF	4.9 ppm	7.2	Red fox, minnow/guppies.
Tue, Sept.16, 2008 12:30 p.m. Overcast & sprinkling. No rain	Air: 20^oC/68^oF Water: 20^oC/68^oF	4.5 ppm	7.2	Heard a bunch of chattering birds across the creek, minnows/guppies
Tue, Sept.23, 2008 12:30 p.m. Overcast, no rain.	Air: 23^oC/73.4^oF Water: 20^oC/68^oF	6.9 ppm	7.6	Two people, medium sized lizard, minnows/guppies
Tue, Sept. 30, 2008 12:30 p.m. Hot & Sunny, no rain.	Air: 24^oC/75.2^oF Water: 22^oC/71.6^oF	7.3 ppm	7.6	Three deer (does), mosquitoes, minnows/guppies, heard birds chattering across creek.
Tue, Oct. 7, 2008	Did not test
Tue, Oct. 14, 2008 12:30 p.m. Hot and sunny, no rain	Air: 22^oC/71.6^oF Water: 19^oC/66.2^oF	2.2 ppm	7.2	Deer, minnows/guppies, large pile of asphalt shingles within floodplain of creek & river. City employee spread them out even further into the flood plain. He was made to clean them up.
Did not test from October 15, 2008 to January 13, 2009
Tue, Jan.13, 2009 Has been raining. Cloudy today.	Air: 12^oC/53.6^oF Water: 9^oC/48.2^oF	4.6 ppm	6.5	Creek flooded out of its banks about 2 days ago.
Tue, Feb. 3, 2009 Rained yesterday. Clear and cool today.	Air: 9^oC/48.2^oF Water: 5^oC/41^oF	10 ppm	7.5	Rained yesterday. Clear and cool to day. Hear construction on RR bridge over Hwy 27.
Tue, Feb.10,2009 Cloudy and warm.	Air: 12^oC/53.6^oF Water: 11^oC/51.8^oF	7.8 ppm	7.7	Norfolk Southern has crane truck on river trestle to maybe clean log jam.
Instead of doing weekly testing, I have decided to drop back to bi-weekly.
Tue, Feb. 24, 2009 Clear, sunny and cold.	Air: 12^oC/53.6^oF Water: 7^oC/44.6^oF	10 ppm	7.7	I can hear frogs. Spring is coming. Here's a website to info on Georgia Frogs.
Tue, Mar. 10, 2009	Air: 27^oC/80.6^oF Water: 19^oC/66^oF	7.4 ppm	7.6	Warm and sunny. Ran into a young couple and their toddler. They had walked across the railroad bridge from Celunese
Tue, Mar. 24, 2009	Did not test
Tue, Apr. 7, 2009	Air: 14_oC/57^oF Water: 13^oC/55^oF	7.3 ppm	6.8	Rained really good last Thurs and Fri. Creek was really high. Sunny and clear.