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Our summer is winding down and some of us start thinking about getting our ponds ready for winter. We still have two months of enjoying our ponds before the snow but it is smart to get ready. With this in mind our program for October will be on techniques of overwintering plants and fish. It will be a meeting that you will not want to miss.
Okay -- but what about our program for September? I have been able to convince Dr. Charles Drewes, a Professor in the Zoology Dept. at Iowa State, to talk to us about the small critters in our ponds. This program is an exciting one for me because of Charlie's intense interest and knowledge on the subject. He invited me up to his lab last week to pick up some literature and, WOW, did I get the grand tour! He had containers of small worms, water fleas, planaria, hydra, and list goes on. A lot of these critters are in our ponds and are crucial to the ecology of them. Remember my presentation on the patina of a pond? Well, these critters make up a portion of it. Once these guys are understood then the ecology of our ponds starts to make sense. Charlie is so enthusiastic about these critters that it is exciting to be looking at them with his explanations.
Two or three member's ponds will be sampled for critters prior to the meeting (on Sunday to be exact) and Charlie will identify what is in them. We will then see what is crawling around in our "pristine" waters. The type of animals that inhabit rubber lined ponds may be somewhat different from natural earth based ponds -- but just how much different will be interesting to find out.
Dr. Drewes will have several dissecting scopes set up for us to see the small critters and the larger ones will be displayed in containers. Everything will be presented so that you will not have to touch anything, if you are squeamish. A large amount of effort will be done by Charlie in setting up this presentation and he is very glad to do this for us. I want to thank him for agreeing to be so willing to help us understand what is happening in our ponds.
On a sad note, we lost one of our members due to a long illness. Chuck Ellingson's obituary appears later in this newsletter but I wanted to say how much our organization and myself will miss him. Chuck married a long time friend (Connie) and soon after they married, moved into a house that borders my place in Ames. Our lives were busy with so many things but we visited some. And we talked Ponds. He was able to see my ponds go in and I'm sure he had to chuckle at what I was doing. Crazy Ponderer!! Then they moved to a better part of town -- not too far from me but I lost touch with them.
Then with the formation of the CIWGA he, along with his wife and brother-in-law, Don Williams, joined during the first meeting. One of the benefits of our group is to become friends with people that have the same interests. With Chuck and family joining I was able to reconnect with friends that I had not seen for a while. Now, this was exciting.
With Chuck's passing so soon after joining the CIWGA, we have lost a good member that I am sure would have been a friend with most of us. We have lost a true ponderer -- one that really valued the tranquility of our great hobby. Good-bye Chuck -- we will miss you.
I hope to see everybody at our Critters meeting. It will be fun.
Jamie, Your President acting like a Big Toad