FPS staff report
May 1, 2007
Approximately 200 seventh grade students from the nine science classes at Bell-Herron Middle School will participate in the annual Huff Run Awareness Day Thursday, May 10.
The group involves students in classes taught by Mrs. Christine Shroyer and Jim Pyles, who worked with Huff Run officials to organize the learning opportunity for their students.
Huff Run is a stream that runs for approximately ten miles through western Carroll and eastern Tuscarawas counties before emptying into Conotton Creek. Surrounded by mining operations for over a century, the stream's water quality suffered greatly.
Restoration efforts by the Huff Run Watershed Restoration Partnership, a non-profit organization, and its partner agencies are improving water quality and bringing life back to the stream.
To date, eight reclamation projects have been completed with many more in planning stages. Acid mine drainage is one of the watershed's most prominent problems and occurs when water reacts with mine water or coal spoil, resulting in orange, acidic drainage.
The seventh graders will visit the watershed and participate in several different learning situations. While exploring the watershed, they will have a chance to get in the stream and find macroinvertebraes, small organisms like worms, crawfish and insects that live in the stream and conduct a water quality monitoring experiment.
They will also experience an electrofishing demonstration and a site tour of Huff Run's Lyons Reclamation project. Demonstrations will be facilitated by professionals from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Environment Protection Agency, Carroll Soil and Water Conservation District and Huff Run staff and volunteers who visited Bell-Herron classrooms in April and gave presentations on groundwater, acid mine draining and protecting watersheds.
The May 10 Huff Run Awareness Day field trips are sponsored by the Huff Run Watershed Restoration Partnership, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring the watershed by improving water quality and enhancing wildlife habitat.
The partnership meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at the watershed office located at 8728 High St. NE in the former Mineral City village hall building.
For more information about the watershed or other opportunities for field trips and tours, contact Huff Run VISTA, Michelle Shively, at 330-859-1050. More information can also be found at the partnership's website: www.huffrun.org. |
