Here come Medea Creek crayfish catchers to the rescue




ECO-FRIENDLY—At far right, Medea Creek Middle School students build artificial refuge traps to capture invasive crayfish. At right, a student volunteer tamps down wire mesh screens on her trap. Below, one of the crayfish traps made with PVC pipes.

ECO-FRIENDLY—Above, Medea Creek Middle School students build artificial refuge traps to capture invasive crayfish. Below, a student volunteer tamps down wire mesh screens on her trap. Bottom, one of the crayfish traps made with PVC pipes.

A group of environmentally minded residents is working to rid Medea Creek of invasive crayfish and is asking for help from the public.

A community orientation is set for Sun., March 27 for anyone interested in adopting a section of the creek for trapping.

Traps were built at an event March 6 at Oak Park High School, where members of Friends of Oak Park Open Space and Medea Creek Middle School’s Team Crayfish worked together to teach residents how to build artificial refuge traps to capture the crayfish. Twenty-four students and families assembled 50 traps made out of PVC pipes, rebar and wire mesh.

The traps, designed by Lew Riffle of the Friends group, mimic the protective burrows where crayfish prefer to hide, tempting them to take refuge inside where they can easily be pulled up for removal.

Advantages of this type of trap are that they won’t catch other critters and use no bait. The traps are checked every week or two, making it an ideal volunteer opportunity for those who want to help with the removal but can’t make a huge time commitment.

 

 

In addition to trapping, the groups are working with Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District to put up signs around the creek to inform visitors about the crayfish problem.

Friends of Oak Park Open Space is a local conservation organization that specializes in invasive species removal and community education.

Team Crayfish is made up of Medea Creek Middle School eighth-graders Benjamin Rassibi, Pasha Heydari and Cheng Ning.

They won EarthEcho International’s 2020 OurEcho Challenge for their work in removing over 1,800 invasive crayfish from the Medea Creek watershed. More recently, they have been working to develop removal and community education programs to help with the problem.

For more information about Team Crayfish’s work or to get involved in the crayfish removal effort, go to https://bit.ly/Team- Crayfish.

Wilsker is a science teacher at Medea Creek Middle School and the mentor for Team Crayfish.