MINERAL CITY, Ohio — Huff Run Watershed Restoration Partnership hosted three Awareness Day field trips in May, bringing more than 500 students out into the watershed.
This event has been an annual program for more than 10 years and this year was by far the largest Awareness Day the partnership has hosted to date.
Water quality focus
This year, students had the opportunity to visit a restoration site in the watershed, where they learned about water quality and performed pH tests on different types of water.
They also got in the stream to collect and identify macroinvertebrates (bugs), and watched Environmental Protection Agency officials do electrofishing so the students could identify the different types of fish that lived in their stream.
The Awareness Day participants included five home school groups, Sandy Valley’s East Sparta Elementary fifth graders, Carrollton seventh graders and Tusky Valley seventh graders.
Behind the scenes
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio EPA, Carroll and Tuscarawas Soil and Water Conservation District offices, Rural Action, local township trustees, and the partnership members volunteered more than 210 hours to make the field trips possible.
Funding was provided by the U.S. EPA Targeted Watershed Grant.
Huff Run Watershed Restoration Partnership is a nonprofit citizens’ group committed to restoring the Huff Run Watershed by improving water quality and enhancing wildlife habitat, through community support and involvement.
For more information contact Amber Leasure-Earnhardt at 330-859-1050 or amber@ruralaction.org, or visit www.huffrun.org.
