[Music] hi I'm naturalist Paul Roose have you ever thought about how nature and history are connected how does a place get its name and how does it change over time today we will explore reading and writing along the cast river water Trail we will also discover how people of the past and present are influencing this natural resource so grabb something to write with and a piece of paper or your nature journal and let's go exploring can you imagine what stories this River would share if it could talk we're here at a trail sign on the cast River let's read the first part of this sign together the chipa Indians prior to the arrival of European settlers refer to the Cass River as the river of the hurons river served at has major routes of Transportation like water highways to the Native Americans European settlers named the cast River after lwis Cass Who was appointed governor of the territory of Michigan besides providing a water source Rivers were also important for food like walleye sturgeon and Pike Rivers were also important to the logging industry where logs were floated down the river to the Sawmills take take a moment to look at the cast River let's write and describe how it looks moves and sounds what do you feel when you're looking at the river next I'd like to connect you to a important resource for explorers a map let's look at this map together we are here what else can we find out from reading this map we see boat launches as well as amenities which are useful or desirable features of a place here are additional websites as well as what to do in case of an emergency wow reading Trail signs gives us a lot of great information about the trail including its history and how to have fun now I'm at the Cass River Dam located in downtown Frankenmuth throughout Michigan's early history many dams were built in towns and cities changing the way the rivers float dams were structures to help industry but often they impacted our fish wildlife in a negative way stopping them from getting to their breeding grounds because of this loss of habitat this area was considered a National Environmental area of concern not too long ago so to address this issue the city of Frankenmuth decided to change their Dam to become a fish passage to support natural fish reproduction to do this they needed these huge Stones which weigh over 6,000 tons these rocks help fish and prevent floods at the same time these huge stones form a fish passage with a rock ramp allowing the fish to swim upstream to spawn or reproduce Franken M worked on this project with people from the Detroit area as you can read on this sign work like this is having a positive impact on both fish and the local econ omy stop and notice the river let's write down how it looks moves and sounds this is the same river as before the cast River but isn't it interesting how different it is in different spots you could write a comparison of the different spots of the river if you wanted this is not only home to Wildlife like birds but also more than 70 fish species you can check out books and other information online at your local library to learn more about Michigan's history rivers in your area and other ways people are helping rodli remember to get outside and that reading and writing is everywhere [Music]