In this issue: Leaf Pack Across the Americas; NOAA Chesapeake Bay Leaf Pack Grant; Teachers Within the New York City Drinking Water Watershed: Meet Your Local Leaf Pack Coordinators.
“If you want one year of prosperity, plant corn. If you want ten years of prosperity, plant trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity, educate people.” — Chinese Proverb.
Leaf Pack Across the Americas
In March, Stroud Water Research Center Educator Vivian Williams presented the Leaf Pack Experiment to teachers at the Pennsylvania Environmental Education Conference near Ligonier.
This year continued to provide many opportunities to bring the leaf pack experiment to teachers, naturalists, university professors, and community members.
Six Leaf Pack workshops were conducted within the mid-Atlantic region in 2006, and this fall Leaf Pack went to conferences in St. Paul, Minnesota, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Baltimore, Maryland.
In August, 13 scientists and two educators went to Peru, to conduct research in the headwaters of the Amazon River. In October, two scientists and two educators returned to Peru to provide workshops to ecotourism guides, local officials, conservation professionals, and teachers. A component of their workshops, all done in Spanish, included Leaf Pack. In December, they will travel to the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica to provide workshops to similar audiences.
NOAA Chesapeake Bay Leaf Pack Grant
Stroud Water Research Center received a two-year NOAA B-WET grant to work with teachers in Bradford County, PA, and in Mennonite schools in Lancaster County, PA. The teachers will receive extensive watershed education training, which they will then implement into their school curricula.
This exciting project allows us to help students realize the critical connection between their communities and the Chesapeake Bay. LPN will also enable the students to connect with one another.
Teachers Within the New York City Drinking Water Watershed: Meet Your Local Leaf Pack Coordinators
East of Hudson Leaf Pack Coordinator
Beth Rhines is Environmental Educator and Water Quality Education Coordinator at Teatown Lake Reservation in Ossining, NY.
Beth received a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Clarke University in Worcester, MA. While there she conducted research on the ecology and certification of vernal pools in varied land-use areas. Recently Beth earned a Master’s degree in Environmental Science with a concentration in Environmental Education from Antioch New England in Keene, NH.
Beth has worked in environmental education for eight years, including positions at residential camps and nature centers throughout New England. She has spent a great deal of time mucking around in ponds, lakes, and streams and looks forward to teaching others about streams using the Leaf Pack method.
West of Hudson Leaf Pack Coordinator
Ben Murdock is the Watershed Educator at the Catskill Center in Arkville, NY.
Ben graduated from SUNY Postdam with a degree in Philosophy. After college he joined the Catskill Outdoor Education Corps, a program run through Americorp. Recently Ben has led aquatic ecology and watershed education programs, facilitated low-ropes courses, run chainsaws, cut and laid blue stone, kayaked, skied, and led trail-work crews throughout the western Catskills.
In his younger days, Ben was often found swimming in the creek, mucking through the swamps, or sliding down the waterfalls near his family’s home in Otsego County, NY. Not only has he spent most of his vacations camping and canoeing throughout the Catskills, Adirondacks, and state parks of Maine, but he’s been fortunate enough to fly fish in New England, Montana, and even Japan. Ben looks forward to exploring the streams and forests in his new home.
