Watershed issues affect community, students
Christina Shuman New Editor
Issue date: 1/29/09 Section: News
|
Jamie Walker, president of the Beech Creek Watershed Association and the distributed systems specialist here at LHU, spoke to the campus community through MountainServe to provide information about their work and the environment.
In April of 1999, the Beech Creek Watershed Association (BCWA) was organized by a group of concerned local residents of the watershed, as well as local communities.
The mission of the BCWA is to protect the quality and beauty of the Beech Creek.
The BCWA does this by promoting wise land use and management of natural resources in the watershed, promoting awareness and appreciation of environmental issues through education, as well as many more ways.
There are many environmental issues surrounding the Beech Creek watershed.
One of the largest issues is acid mine drainage (AMD).
Others include un-reclaimed surface coalmines, sewage treatment, illegal dumping, unregulated ATV usage and development particularly along steam corridors.
Along with AMD, natural gas development is becoming an issue more and more.
Impacts from natural gas well development include sedimentation of wild trout streams, forest fragmentation, loss of drinking water supplies and chemical contamination from gas exploration.
Although these environmental issues may seem like they do not affect us personally, they actually can affect students.
The AMD provides fewer opportunities for students to be able to go fishing.
There is a yellow/orange iron oxide that precipitates in the streambed and this may be esthetically unappealing to student visitors to the watershed.
Since there are environmental issues that can affect students, students should consider becoming a member of the BCWA, for a small fee of $5.
"They can help the restoration efforts by planting trees, writing grants to fund reclamation activities, participate in watershed cleanups and conduct additional studies to classify the water quality of the AMD discharges," said Walker.
Be the first to comment on this story