If anyone in the Rome area drives for about two or more miles in any direction, they will almost certainly cross a bridge, or at least a culvert.

Taking exception for bridges over railroads or other roads, a traveler crosses over something that is precious and is required by all living beings — water.

I counted the creek and river crossings that fall roughly within the city limits of Rome, and unless I missed a few, there are at least sixty stream crossings that have year round flowing water. Some of these creeks are small streams fed by springs that originate in someone’s back yard, and are home to small creatures, such as frogs, tadpoles, crawfish and minnows.

A good example of one of these small streams is the creek that parallels Reservoir Street and borders Jackson Hill. This spring-fed stream is not even a mile long and is piped for a quarter mile under the basketball courts, a parking lot, then passes under Kentucky Fried Chicken before running free to the river.

I am sure that many people of Rome have seen this little creek sparkling in the sunlight as they have taken the short cut from North Broad to the civic center. Over the years I have seen so many items tossed into this creek that it’s a wonder that creatures still live in it.

Next opportunity, take a ride down Reservoir Street, stop the car and inspect the creek. If you look closely you will see signs of life. Surely you will see crawfish and this time of year tadpoles and possibly a fish.

Most people just see it as a funnel that will carry away the trash tossed from passing cars or abandoned items from the nearby apartments. I cannot even begin to estimate the number of cigarette butts that have made their way to the river by this little stream itself since the road was first built in the 1930s

Why should we care about a little unnamed creek less than a mile long? The answer is simple — just as the smallest capillaries in the human body carry blood to the slightly larger veins and these veins merge into arteries, the little creeks are the carriers and sources of the life blood of the world, our drinking water.

If a part of your body is damaged so badly that blood no longer flows to and from it, that part of your body will die and the rest of your body will suffer from the loss. If we do not take care of these small capillary type streams our rivers will suffer.

As a member of Trout Unlimited, I can assure you that TU cares about all the little streams of our nation. Our focus being Trout, keeps us at the primary and ultimate sources of our rivers, the trout streams, their springs and tiny tributaries that are the headwaters of the rivers.

It is up to groups like Coosa River Basin Initiative and Georgia Adopt a Stream to get individuals involved with the local warm water streams. Remember that the water that flows off your rooftop, yard and driveway takes with it the chemicals and trash that is on your property and carries it into the nearest stream and on to the river.

Think about what is in your lawn and what is dripping from your car. Anything that you can do to reduce the pollutants that leave your yard will make the capillary like creeks and the arterial rivers that much healthier.

TU meeting

The next meeting of the Coosa Valley Chapter will be Thursday, July 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Opis Waterfront Restaurant in Downtown Rome. Our guest speaker will be Chris Scalley who is the owner and chief guide at River Through Atlanta guide service.

Chris has spent over 4,000 days in the past twenty years fishing and guiding on the Chattahoochee River Tailrace and there isn’t anyone who can better inform you of when, where and how to catch trout there. He also has great expertise on many other trout streams of the southeast.

This meeting is open to the public and all are invited. There will be a buffet at a cost of $10 per head including non-alcohol drinks.