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Westmoreland County 6th-grade students learn to paddle along Cat Point Creek.
Photo courtesy of Rebecca Beale
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Middlesex County 6th-grade students sampling shallow water animals with seine nets in the York River.
The Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula of Virginia, are characterized by a rural landscape, cut by creeks and rivers, creating hundreds of miles of shoreline. The concept of a watershed, or the land that drains into a body of water, is especially meaningful here.
A watershed can be as small as the land that drains into a creek or wetland, or as large as the parts of six states that drain into the Chesapeake Bay. Regardless of size, a healthy watershed can support a variety of flora and fauna and provide clean water for drinking, industry and recreational activities.
The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, ratified in 2014, aims to engage citizens in working towards an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable Bay watershed. One goal of the multi-state agreement is that every student within the region graduates with “knowledge and skills to act responsibly to protect and restore their local watershed.” To accomplish this goal, students should participate in a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) in elementary, middle and high school. A MWEE includes a sustained learning experience that incorporates integrated classroom learning and research, outdoor field activities, and restoration or protection.
MWEEs are often implemented through schools and may be supported by local environmental organizations. Three Rivers Environmental Educators (TREE) provides a network of partners that can contribute support and resources to teachers. Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR)educators have worked to connect several Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula teachers with TREE partners, through funding from NOAA Bay Watershed Education and Training, to help students answer the question, “How do our daily actions impact the health of the Rappahannock River?”
Patty Ptucha, the 6th-grade science teacher in Richmond County, has partnered with several TREE organizations. Her students have conducted water quality testing on Totuskey Creek, a Rappahannock River tributary to which stormwater from the schools of Richmond County eventually flows. By assessing water quality, students become aware of how human activities impact our waters. Over the years, her students have also made an impact by creating floating treatment wetlands, organizing community cleanups, leading fertilizer campaigns and building oyster sentinels to increase habitat. The floating treatment wetlands, placed in the schools’ retention pond, help to filter storm-water by absorbing nutrients and capturing sediment. The Richmond County MWEE earned a “Programs That Work” award in 2016 from the Virginia Mathematics and ScienceCoalition, recognizing exemplary projects that positively impact student learning.
Sixth-grade teachers at St. Clare Walker Middle School began to work with FOR to implement MWEEs during the 2017-2018 school year. A few of the activities they have participated in this year include water quality testing at Urbanna Creek and a field experience to the Chesapeake Bay NationalEstuarine Research Reserve at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). At VIMS students practiced identification of fish species and pulled seine nets in the York River to survey shallow-water organisms. In another project, the sixth-graders planted native plants in depressed areas near stormwater collection sites at St. Clare Walker, where flooding often occurred. These rain gardens help to slow the release of stormwater and prevent erosion. Science teacher, Nicole Hundley, reports, “It has been a wonderful educational experience and the students have gotten some valuable real-world experience.”
Currently, TREE partners continue work in Essex, King George, Lancaster, Middlesex, Richmond and Westmoreland counties. Through classroom and field studies, students learn what it means that “we all live downstream.”
A watershed, like a community, benefits from collective efforts to make our common places better. Each of us makes daily decisions that impact the health of our land and waters, which in turn impact our quality of life.
You can learn more about opportunities to engage with the community to experience, restore and protect our watershed with the following organizations:
Friends of the Rappahannock · riverfriends.org
Friends of the Dragon Run · dragonrun.org
Tidewater Oyster Gardeners Association · oystergardener.org
Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay · allianceforthebay.org
Northern Neck Master Naturalists · northernneckmasternaturalists.squarespace.com