RCD Director Greg Lowden Elected Treasurer Canon National Envirothon
The Canon Envirothon is a hands-on outdoor competition for high school aged youth that tests students’ understanding of soils, aquatic ecology, wildlife and a specially selected current issue. There are Envirothon programs in 44 states and 7 Canadian Provinces. Greg chaired the National Competition held in California in 1999 and has served as the California Envirothon President for 4 years. For more information about forming your own team, contact us at the RCD.
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District Manager's Corner
by Pat Frost
I am often asked, “How does the Resource Conservation District come up with its projects?” Well, our projects come to us in a number of ways, but they always have two things in common. Firstly, all of the work that the District does rises out of our Long Range Plan. This Plan includes watersheds, forest health, agriculture, recreational trails and conservation education. Secondly, project ideas always have a champion – someone with a vision for the project and the enthusiasm to see it become a reality. This issue of the Conservation Almanac has some great examples of project champions. The photo-spread of children’s events on page 4 highlights three such projects and their champions. Sixth graders from Weaverville Elementary School go to Bar 717 Ranch for their Environmental Education Camp. This camp has a unique approach of using resource professionals, who work and live in our own communities, as the teachers. The incredible success of the camp year-after-year is due to the dedication and energy of Dave Newton and Darsi Green, the sixth grade teachers. Organizing four days of field classes for 60 school children is no simple task, and I know that everyone who has ever helped out as a counselor or an instructor goes away wondering how these amazing teachers do it.
On October 7th we held River Day ’03 at Coffee Creek School. This celebration is the brainchild of Bill Loucks, teacher and principal, at Coffee Creek School. Mr. Loucks came to us last year with the idea of a day-long event that lets school children from around the county get their feet wet visiting learning stations along Coffee Creek. Mr. Loucks is dedicated to giving students real-world experiences and letting them work alongside the foresters and biologists, chemists and soils scientists, who are working in our watersheds and forests. This year children from as far away as Burnt Ranch and French Gulch did just that collecting information about Coffee Creek and learning about everything from local geology to fish anatomy.
Cassie Simons wouldn’t let the Salmon Festival die this year. Cassie is our AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards member and she came up with the idea of a children’s event to replace the salmon festival. The dark clouds of budget cuts loomed over the festival. Cassie’s energy and dedication to children gave us a ray of hope and the next thing we knew the Children’s Salmon Celebration was here. Over 100 children joined in the fun on Saturday, October 4th helping kick off the Weaverville Chamber of Commerce “Autumn in the Alps”. The meadow at the Highland Art Center was drenched in autumn sunlight and filled with laughter as children worked on art projects, played games and took their turn at the Salmon piñata. I don’t know who was having more fun the six-year-olds or the volunteers, who had a chance to put on a mushroom or eagle costume and be six years old for a couple of hours.
These project champions share another trait. They all inspire others to volunteer their time and expertise. Many very busy people dedicated their time to these projects following the lead of Dave, Darsi, Bill and Cassie to share their knowledge, their love of art or their interest in nature with the children of Trinity County, and I thank every one of them for their help.
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Colleen O’Sullivan, RCD Board Member, meets with Connie Stewart of Assemblymember Patty Berg’s office, on District projects.
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