Supported
the USEPA's Environmental Education Grant Program, The MARPAT
Foundation, and the members of Cacapon Institute, Stream
Scholars 2003 was a hands-on exploration of stream ecology and
conservation for 7th to 9th grade students. The Stream Scholars
Summer Camp had three main goals:
promote environmental leaders who
can make informed contributions to the community discussion on watershed
conservation issues.
increase college enrollment in
West Virginia by recruiting students who show academic motivation and promise.
increase student interest in
environmental careers.
Of
course, it also has to be both intellectually engaging and fun.
The first three-day, non-residential, summer camp was hosted In August
2003 by Cacapon Institute at the Gillies farm near Baker. The site we chose was
central to the participating student's from Grant, Hardy and Hampshire counties
and thus minimized their drive times. It also provided ready access to an ideal
pair of watersheds for the program - similar in size, topography, and geology,
but with enough difference in land-use for discernable differences in stream
health to appear. Also, this pair of watersheds has generated a large body of
water-quality information through long-term monitoring programs; this enabled us
to fill in the blanks when weather made getting the information first-hand
impossible.
Stream
Scholars succeeded in playing to one of the primary strengths of Cacapon
Institute, namely the depth and relevance of its water science expertise.In an area and at a grade-level where science teachers are called on to
be a jack-of-all-trades, Stream Scholars gave motivated students a chance to
carry out hands-on investigations with instructors schooled in the subject
matter.This in-house expertise
also allowed us to adjust the
Day
1 began with discussions around two questions: How
does water flow through a watershed?" - where students discussed the
movement of water in our landscape, and "What are the parts of a watershed
and how do they serve each other?" - where students built a conceptual
"ecological" model of a watershed.One reason for starting like this was to make sure that all nine of our
stream scholars had a common understanding of some key elements of watershed
science and how they related to each other.Another reason was to give us time to adjust the schedule after
torrential rains left Skaggs Run, our subject stream, too high to safely work
in.
Adjust we did and, staying
out of the raging waters, we went on to run a suite of chemical analyses that
included phosphate, alkalinity, pH, and temperature.Physical
analyses included a review of bank and buffer zone condition, and a quantitative
survey of land use using aerial photos of the watershed and a dot grid.To make the exercises as relevant to the real-world as possible we used
data sheets and followed the instructions from the West Virginia DEP Level II
stream monitoring protocol.
On Day 2 the
water had finally receded far enough that we could work in the stream. We
inventoried the stream's benthic macroinvertebrates,…or at least those that
were smart enough to seek good cover after the previous day's high water.As living stream inhabitants, the abundance and species distribution of
these critters can provide clues about stream water quality in the recent past.And besides that, looking closely at them is terribly fun.
To further complete the puzzle, we calculated the
cross-sectional area of Skagg's Run and measured the velocity of the water.
To make things interesting, we did it two different ways. The high tech
method used an expensive electronic flow probe with a propeller, tiny computer,
and instant averaging functions. The other method, somewhat lower tech,
used a stick, tape measure and a stopwatch. The campers discovered that
the low tech approach can work just fine if done with care. These
measurements allowed us to estimate flow of Skagg's Run in cubic feet per
minute, and with this, the amount of phosphate and nitrate, or the
"load" of each of these that the stream was carrying to points
downstream.
A quick 2 inches of rain
the evening of Day 2 turned our study streams into raging torrents once again
and when Day 3 dawned saw the North River was raging river.With some fancy footwork and quick research, we were able to provide the
campers with realistic data from past monitoring of the North River.This let them stay safe and allowed them to avoid having to disentangle
the confounding effects of heavy rain from their results.We were able to drive to the adjacent North River and conduct many of the
assessments of the stream bank and buffer zone.We also did a circuit drive of the North River and Skaggs Run headlands
so that the campers had a chance to relate what was going on downstream to land
use upstream.
The grand
finale came when the campers put on presentations in front of their parents and
our invited guest, USDA-NRCS District Conservationist Ed Keseker.They were in two teams and each team had to address the following
questions:
How are Skagg's Run and the North River the same?
How are Skagg's Run and the North River different?
How do you explain the differences?
What would you do to improve watershed functioning on
Skagg's Run and the North River?
In our
case, Skaggs Run had slightly elevated levels of nitrate-nitrogen and
more sediment when compared with the North River. Being adjacent watersheds and
thus sharing many important characteristics like climate, and geology, the
campers were able to zero in more quickly on land use factors that might explain
differences in results.This
allowed for a discussion on the possible impacts of agriculture taking place to
a greater extent in Skaggs Run.We
were also able to discuss interesting things like why elevated phosphorus, also
associated with agriculture, was not present in our samples--phosphorus is more
quickly bound up by soil particles and therefore shows up less quickly in water
samples.
To
conclude, Mr. Keseker handed out certificates of participation to our first
group of Stream Scholars and we disbanded amongst optimistic talk of next year's
program, an advanced course, internships, and general expansion.
Support for this program comes from the US EPA, the MARPAT Foundation,
Cacapon Institute members, and Partner Schools
Cacapon
Institute - From the Cacapon to the Potomac to the Chesapeake Bay,
we protect rivers and watersheds using science and education.
Website made
possible by funding from The Norcross Wildlife Foundation, the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Virginia Environmental
Endowment, NOAA-BWET, USEPA, The MARPAT Foundation, and our generous
members.