Greetings from Ohio! I've made it to the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers at Marietta, Ohio, and am enjoying my day with OSM/VISTA Derek Hennen. Derek works with the Friends of Lower Muskingum River, a non-profit group focused on the health of the Lower Muskingum River Watershed. The past year has been an exciting one for FLMR, as Derek excitedly told me during a tour of the watershed. Their group of water quality volunteer monitors, dubbed the Stream Team, has grown to almost a dozen members keeping tabs on the streams in the watershed, and FLMR is gearing up to plant some rain gardens in Marietta during the upcoming Spring and Summer. What's a rain garden, you ask? Allow me to show you.
Here I am posing with the rain garden outside of FLMR's office. Right now it doesn't look like much, but the plants will soon be blooming as temperatures rise. A rain garden's purpose is to allow water to infiltrate into the ground and reduce storm water runoff, making it a very useful addition to a city's storm water management practices. Rain gardens also clean water of various pollutants and attract native pollinators, such as butterflies and bees, contributing to ecosystem health. This benefit is achieved by planting native plants such as cardinal flower or bee balm, instead of ornamental plants that are often not native. The native flowers in a rain garden are often eye catching, making for a unique garden that is the envy of a neighborhood!
While hanging out in the garden, a small white flower caught my eye, so I took a closer look. It happened to belong to a plant called hairy bittercress, known by the scientific name Cardamine hirsuta. Unfortunately, hairy bittercress is an invasive plant from Asia and will eventually need to be pulled. We were willing to give it a pass today though--after the dreariness of winter, it was nice to see a few flowers blooming. Of course, they were nothing compared to Ohio's native spring wildflowers which will be popping up in a few weeks. Some of those wildflowers can be found in FLMR's rain garden and in others planted in Marietta.We finished our tour of the rain garden and went back into the office to work on some grants (rain gardens sadly do not grow money trees) and I asked Derek about what other projects FLMR works on. I found out that the group also promotes the Muskingum River for its recreational use in a big way: the Mighty Muskingum River Regatta.
Planning for the Regatta is starting to kick into gear, though it doesn't take place until August 11th. This summer will be the Regatta's fifth year, though its history stretches back to the 1970s and '80s, when a similar race was held by the Marietta Jaycees. It fizzled out until FLMR decided to restart the Regatta due to its cultural significance to the city (it used to attract hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators) and in order to get more people interested in recreation on the river. This Regatta isn't like others, however: anyone can participate (even if they don't have a boat), because participants build their own homemade rafts to float down the Muskingum River (à la Huckleberry Finn).
"That sounds ridiculously fun and awesome!" I thought to myself. Smitten, I had to try my hand at building a raft, so Derek helped me out.
We constructed the raft and added a paddle wheel for extreme speed, and I volunteered to test it out to see if it floated. Spoiler alert: it floated fine! Were the Regatta to be held today, I would definitely win. The most important part of the raft, of course, was my life jacket: safety first, kids!
The day was coming to a close, so we had to return to the office to go over what I learned. Watershed health involves many different components, from ensuring access to clean water to encouraging green infrastructure and educating watershed residents about the importance of the mantra "we all live downstream." Our actions affect everyone living downstream, so it's important to be aware of how we use water. We must keep our rivers clean for many important reasons, while still encouraging their use for things like recreation--and raft-building.
Next, I move northward through Ohio to the Leetonia Coke Ovens. Stay tuned!
