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Buffalo Creek Nature Park marks its 1st anniversary

Finn DesLauriers, 15, learns fly fishing Friday in Little Buffalo Creek during the Watershed Camp at Buffalo Creek Nature Park in Buffalo Township. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

BUFFALO TWP — Buffalo Creek Nature Park marked its first anniversary with a weeklong watershed camp for children, who fished and looked below the surface of Little Buffalo Creek, literally.

The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania opened its Babcock Nature Center in the park June 12, 2021. The park is between Little Buffalo Creek and the Butler-Freeport Community Trail.

The $1.5 million center, the culmination of four years of planning, is at the Monroe Road trailhead of the Butler-Freeport trail.

Danielle Rihel of the Audubon Society said the watershed camp participants learned what a watershed is through activities such as doing a macro invertebrate survey counting the numbers of aquatic insects, mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies, to gauge the health of the stream.

The results, Rihel said, can show if the water quality is excellent, good or bad.

Campers looked under the surface by making and using open-bottom vision buckets on another day.

“During stream exploration, they found fresh water mussels and crayfish,” she said.

With help from a contingent from Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, the campers also conducted a fish survey by using kick seines to trap and count fish.

“They found 11 different species, not counting trout, and 115 different fish in the survey,” Rihel said.

Arya Beale, 8, takes home one of the trout that she caught Friday at the Watershed Camp at Buffalo Creek Nature Park in Buffalo Township. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

The recent 90-degree temperatures didn’t quell the campers’ enthusiasm, she said.

“Even with the heat, we were able to cool off in the stream. The kids loved it. It wasn’t a problem,” Rihel said. “The stream is really shaded. It keeps the water cool and us cool.”

On the final day, Friday, campers were being taught fly fishing techniques by members of Trout Unlimited.

Ryan DesLauriers of Gibsonia brought his sons, Lucius, 11, and Finn, 15, to the watershed camp.

“Their grandfather was an avid fisherman,” DesLauriers said.

“I liked the open-bottom vision project,” Lucius said.

“I liked the birding the best,” said Finn, referring to another activity of the watershed camp.

Rihel said other activities during the camp included making topographic maps and decorating T-shirts using chlorophyll from leaves and other plants to make designs.

Camp intern Adam Kurtz fly fishes Friday in the Little Buffalo Creek during the Watershed Camp at Buffalo Creek Nature Park in Buffalo Township. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

Dave Beale, a member of Trout Unlimited since 1972, was showing his granddaughter, Arya, 8, how to fish and also admiring his recent handiwork.

Beale was involved in a streambank restoration and fish habitat improvement project along Little Buffalo Creek in April.

A private driveway running parallel to the stream was crumbling. Beale supervised a project to shore up 200 feet of the bank with shingled and sized stone and the construction of two rock vanes to deflect water flow away from the bank.

On Friday, he was helping Arya try to catch some of the 250 brown and rainbow trout that Trout Unlimited had released into the creek earlier in the month.

He said Arya had caught five and kept one.

Rihel said future activities at the Buffalo Creek Nature Park include stream exploration for families and a weeklong survival camp for children, ages 10 to 17, at the end of July. Details are available at the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania website.

Elijah Gehenio, 10, learns fly fishing Friday during the Watershed Camp at Buffalo Creek Nature Park in Buffalo Township. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

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