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The area's rivers have always been important for those living in the area.
Native Americans frequently fished the waters, and hunted the game, such as elk and bison that came to the water edge.
When the European settlers first arrived, they found the abundant fish and the game living nearby to be a valuable food source. Early writing about the area describes eight bison being hunted along Duck Creek during the winter of 1792. Some of the fish caught in area rivers were huge, including a 96-pound pike caught in the Muskingum in July of 1788.
Those living in Ohio hunted much of the game to extinction. Pollution caused by man dirtied the waters, causing drops in the fish and bird populations
Today, after decades of efforts to clean up the nation's waterways, the rivers and creeks in our own backyards are teeming with a wide variety of life -- above, on, and below their surface. There are a multitude of birds, amphibians and fish that can be found along our area waterways.
Long time readers of The Marietta Times likely have noticed that I frequently combine my love of the water with wildlife photography. The result is that over the years you have likely viewed dozens if not hundreds of wildlife photos that I have shot along and on the different waterways.
My choice shooting platform is a kayak. It allows me to sneak up on things. More than once the wildlife has snuck up on me. For instance, while paddling up a branch of the Little Hocking, my daughter and I disturbed an eight-point buck sleeping a few feet away, the deer jumped, and I admit, so did both of us.
A different time in the same area a huge spider decided to drop from a tree directly into my wife's kayak. I managed to scoop it up and throw it into the water. It promptly walked across the water and tried to climb back into the boat. I had no idea spiders could walk on water. Another time I hit a fish while paddling in a shallow part of the Little Hocking. The fish nearly jumped in my boat, and I nearly jumped out of it.
Most times I spot things before either one of us gets startled. This past spring I did a photo story on George Washington's 1770 trip down the Ohio River. I was standing on the bridge near the confluence of the Hocking River and the Ohio when a crow started chasing a bald eagle, they both were being pretty loud about it, not loud enough to scare away the pair of turtles that were sunning themselves on a log just upstream from the bridge. Sometimes you get lucky. All four eventually found their way into either The Times or The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.
The Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge, is made up of 22 islands, including nearby Buckleys Island. The refuge is not only home to hundreds of species of fish; a wide variety of mammals; dozens of different mussels species cling to the rocks around the island and a wide array of birds fly overhead, with some using it as a rest stop on north-south migrations. You can view many of them if you take a trip around the island. The nice thing about using a kayak on the river is you are close to the water surface. You can easily see schools of small fish swimming in the grass growing 20 feet or so from the Ohio River Levee.
While trying to get an interesting photo of an odd root on The Muskingum recently I looked down to see a two-foot gar just hanging out a foot or so down.
The abundant fish population has led to a wide-variety of bird population that feeds on them and other creatures near the water.
Bald eagles are now common in the area, as are great blue herons and hawks.
A few months ago a hawk along the Ohio River flew over my car carrying a large snake. I thought "wow, I haven't seen that in a while." The next day the exact same thing happened at the same spot. 7:59 am must be feeding time. It was close enough to my car that I was glad I had the sunroof closed.
There have been a lot of improvements in the form of river access for people in recent years. The new Parkersburg Ohio River Trail, is one example. Millions of dollars pledged by the State of Ohio to improve the riverbanks not only in Marietta, but also several other nearby communities, will undoubtedly allow more people to enjoy the natural beauty that we often take for granted.
When people enjoy things, they tend to help take care of them. Please try your best to give wildlife you encounter the space they deserve. Remember, their ancestors were here before ours.
Art Smith is online manger, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com