Environmental Education and Stream Cleanups with HRWA

Hey everyone! I just arrived at the last stop of my trip touring all the OSM/VISTAs in the field, at the Harpeth River Watershed Association in Brentwood, TN.

I arrived just in time to help OSM/VISTA Marina and a HRWA volunteer teach a watershed lesson to a group of kids at a summer camp. We used a really cool hands-on tool called EnviroScape to teach kids about nonpoint source pollution and the concept of a watershed. It’s a big plastic landscape with a creek running through the center and the kids are able to “litter” the landscape, then make it rain and see how all the litter on the land makes its way into the creek. We then taught the kids about benthic macroinvertebrates and how scientists can sample a creek for these bugs to determine water quality. We all received small nets and buckets and then got into the creek to go find some critters! Some of the wildlife that we found included: crayfish, darters, caddisflies, aquatic worms and blackfly larvae (ew!), damselflies and snails! I think I had just as much fun as all the kids did and it was so great to see them learning while having a great time! In fact, I had so much fun playing in the creek that I forgot I was actually at work, so I was really excited when Marina told me that we had another chance to get in the creek later in the week for a stream cleanup!

Back in May 2010, Metro Nashville was devastated by a historic flood. Last summer as part of a grant through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, HRWA launched a flood recovery hotline for residents of Davidson County to report remaining flood debris. HRWA received over 200 calls and assessed and prioritize every site. This summer HRWA is working with volunteers to clean the streams listed as a top priority.

Marina found some awesome waders that were just my size!

We had a great group of young adult volunteers completing a service project through a local church. Before we got started, we gave them an orientation and some background information on the project. They learned of all the items we needed to find and remove, including: large metal items, car batteries, plastic pieces, carpet, mattresses, tires and debris dams which were all impairing the water quality of this small tributary to the Cumberland River, the source of our drinking water. This particular cleanup site was also very unique because it is in the vicinity of a large homeless camp in Nashville. The volunteers were alerted to this, and reminded to be just as respectful to them as they would be to homeowners along residential creeks. Just because the people who live here don’t have an “official” home and yard, this is still their space and we needed to be just as respectful as we would have been in any other neighborhood. Residents of the camp were a bit sensitive at first because they didn't know who we were or what we were doing. But, all the volunteers were very friendly and willing to talk with the residents of the camp to inform them on who we were and what we were doing. Once they learned that we were here to clean the creek and remove flood debris, they were extremely grateful!

Our volunteers were so hard-working that they removed over 1 ton of flood debris!

I had such a fun and educational time visiting everyone, but I am excited to return home to the Support Office in Beckley, WV!

Trail makeover with Friends of Deckers Creek

On April 22nd (EARTH DAY!) I arrived in Morgantown, WV to meet with Friends of Deckers Creek (FODC) OSM VISTA, Doug Gilbert.  FODC is a nonprofit watershed organization that strives to improve the water quality of Deckers Creek through water remediation projects, community outreach and public education.  It is FODC's goal that by 2020 Deckers Creek and its tributaries will be healthy enough to provide clean, safe, and accessible areas for water-related recreation (e.g., kayaking; fishing).  

Doug introduced me to a couple of the staff at FODC and then informed me we would be hosting a volunteer outing for a group of West Virginia University students.  The day's mission: to widen a walking trail at FODC's Outdoor Learning Park (OLP), a local green space adjacent to Deckers Creek that is used for light recreation and education opportunities.  Apparently the width of the trail was restricting the amount of people that could walk on the trail and if someone were to meet another individual while walking on the trail they would have to step off the trail rather than simply walking by them.  The City of Morgantown's Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners provided equipment so that we could complete the task. 

Arriving to meet the Friends of Deckers Creek Executive Director, Liz Wiles, and Water Remediation Project Manager, Tim Denicola.

 We met the group at the OLP and got right to work!  With only a few hours to work we focused heavily on moving the existing rock border and removing grass in order to widen the trail.  The students worked diligently and really seemed to enjoy getting the opportunity to spend Earth Day outdoors doing something that would benefit the community.  Unfortunately the goal of completing the project in the allotted time proved to be a bit ambitious.  The group did put a huge dent in the amount of work that needed to be done, and if I was not a paper doll I believe I could have better contributed to the project.  Doug says that he will work with FODC's Volunteer Coordinator to recruit community members to finish the project in May.  

While we were unable to complete the project our efforts did receive good press coverage.  Both the Dominion Post and the Daily Athenaeum, the City's newspaper and WVU's student newspaper, respectively, covered the event.  It was exciting to see how interested the media was in covering the collaborative work between FODC and WVU students.  

West Virginia University students and OSM VISTA Doug Gilbert after a hard day of trail construction.

Parks and a Pedal-Paddle Trail in PA

Hey, guys! I made it to Pennsylvania and I've been checking out everything that's going on with Evergreen Conservancy and the Crooked Creek Watershed Association. I even got to help out around the Indiana County Conservation District office as they were getting ready for the Indiana County Envirothon that's coming up in May.

My new friend and I made sure the walkie talkies were working.

Check out ICCD's AMD orange shirts they got for the  Envirothon!

Kelly brought me along to a meeting about a grant Evergreen is submitting for Homer City Borough, located just a few miles down the road from Indiana. Evergreen and the Borough built a canoe launch last year along the creek that passes through town, and they want to turn the site into a park with community gardens, rain gardens, a nice pavilion, and a Pedal-Paddle Trail. A local walking/biking trail passes close to the park, so trail users would be able to leave their bikes at the take-out point down the creek, put their kayak or canoe in at the Homer City launch, then paddle down the creek, pick up their bikes and pedal back up the trail to their car, then drive to pick up their kayaks. Sounds like it would be pretty cool (and maybe a little confusing to describe) if they can make it happen! I would keep my fingers crossed for them, but they don't really move that way... They were working down to the wire to get everything ready to submit, but they did it! I was even there to witness the triumphant clicking of the submit button and the ensuing celebration. What a rush!

Evergreen board member John and I love parks!

After all that office work, I was glad to get out in the field. We visited Bear Run, a major tributary of the Susquehanna that eventually empties into the Chesapeake Bay. This was Kelly's first time visiting the site, so we both learned quite a bit. There are 25 acres of abandoned mine land and 2000 ft of impacted stream channels at the site along with two major abandoned mine discharges that contribute about 63% of the iron loading in the Bear Run Watershed. To address this, Evergreen partnered with several organizations a few years ago to construct a passive treatment system. We went out with a couple of  Evergreen volunteers to install a datalogger so they can monitor and compile water quality data from the stream. Evergreen now has 32 dataloggers installed in streams throughout the county with plans for more! 

Hard at work installing the datalogger.

Abandoned by the abandoned mine discharge.

Now it's back to West Virginia! I can't wait to see what's in store for me down there!

Building Mad Capacity in Leetonia

Carlotta, checking in again. I've traveled north from Marietta and made my way to Leetonia, Ohio. This place has a lot of crazy stuff happening. Justin made me sit at his crazily over crowded desk and do paper work for what seemed like hours! Luckily I helped him get a lot accomplished. We called sponsors for his upcoming 5K race. Afterwards he took me to the park to show me around. I enjoyed reviewing some of the educational material he has put at the park. I got to see all the ovens and explore in the area. Justin informed me that they were constructed in 1866 and were the economic backbone of the community for 60 years! They employed 1/3 of the population of the town. I am standing in a coke oven, but I am only doing this under careful supervision from a relatively unqualified professional. Justin wants everybody to stay out of the ovens. Finally, we distributed some maps of the Village at the local bike trail. I got to see how the bike trail has a gap through town, and many bicyclists get lost. Justin is such an awesome hipster bicyclist himself that he decided to make maps showing people how to get across town and show them where all the neat stuff in Leetonia is. These must be helpful because this is the second batch he's had to deliver in 2 months! Welp, time to head to Indiana, PA. Please, don't let him put me back in the envelope...it's so dark in there. WAIT! AAAAAHHHHHH!

On the River at Marietta

 

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!

A Lesson in Geothermal Energy with the Coal River Group

Greeting from Tornado, WV! 

There are exciting things taking place here at the Coal River Group Science & Education Center today. Behind me you can see the drilling rig that is preparing to drill a well for the CRG's new geothermal heat pump system. Once installed, this system will heat and cool the CRG River Center using the constant heat of the earth underground. 

A few feet under the ground, the soil or water remains a pretty constant temperature year-round. Just that little bit of warmth can be used to heat or cool homes and offices. Fluid circulates through a series of pipes under the ground and into a building. An electric compressor and heat exchanger pull the heat from the pipes and send it via a duct system throughout the building. In the summer the process is reversed. The pipes draw heat away from the house and carry it to the ground or water outside, where it is absorbed.

That’s right, folks—efficient heating and cooling with a fraction of the fossil fuels conventionally involved. More importantly, this geothermal system will be essential for keeping OSM/VISTA Sara Cottingham warm while she works. 

Stay tuned for my adventures in Ohio.....

Hello!  This is Carlotta again.  I arrived at the Morris Creek Watershed Assocation (MCWA) on Saturday March 9th just in time for one of their weekend events.  The MCWA had 61 volunteers from WVU Tech and Bridgemont Community and Technical College that helped throughout the day.  The focus was on three projects being worked.  The first was the piping of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)  to the beginning of passive treatment systems at two locations.  One system will use the repiping of AMD to power a hydro turbine and aid in treating the AMD.  The second will allow the MCWA and its parters to monitor a different method of treating AMD known as a "Swedish Tank" (limestone diversion well).  The third project was clearing trails to points of interest to allow students and visitors navigate more easily.  This day was a fun filled day with a lot of work being accomplished.  Now for my next stop to visit Sara Cottingham!  I hear she has been doing some great work!

Hittin' the Turnpike!

I’m Carlotta, an OSM/FlatVISTA with the Appalachian Coal Country Team! I’m pretty excited that ACCT Team Director, April Trent, is sending me to do some site visits in the field. It's only a couple weeks before our big spring training at Hawks Nest State Park in Ansted, WV, so  I’ve got to move pretty quickly from site to site.  

On my first stop I will OSM/VISTA Rob Jackson with Morris Creek Watershed Association (MCWA), just up the road a bit in Montgomery, WV. I hope that Rob will show me the new hydro-turbine that they’ve been working on.  I follow MCWA on Facebook and it looks like they’ve been hard at working to get the turbine up and running. I’m also looking forward to hanging out with Mike King and his dog Natalie, they are a fun pair to hang out with! After visiting Rob, I will hit the road and visit Sara Cottingham (West by god Virginia, waterfalls, social enterprise, and middle school science projects!), Derek Hennen (Ohio and rain gardens), Justin Hite (Ohio and coke ovens), Kelly Cossey (Pennsylvania, AMD treatment systems, and education), Doug Gilbert (West Virginia, Park revitalization and Owl Calling), Tarence Ray (Kentucky, watershed outreach...and artistic Appalshop people), and my final stop with Marina Metes (Nashville!!!, prescription drug take-back bins, and stream cleaning).