John Copeland, our Water Quality Manager, recently visited Springhouse Community School in Floyd, Virginia, to hold an aquatic macroinvertebrate (insect larvae) touch tank for the 5-8 year-old class. Gigi Austin, a teacher at the school who is teaching a course titled “The Phenomena of Water” says “Springhouse Community School (SCS) is very fortunate to have a stream running through its property. I’m hoping to make learning about and caring for that the center of our study.” Austin reached out to New River Conservancy (NRC) for activity suggestions.
For the touch tank, Copeland brought a kiddie pool and some buckets, as well as an aquatic insect collection net and exploration kit. In addition to his work with NRC, Copeland does aquatic macroinvertebrate sampling as a volunteer with the Izaak Walton League of America’s Save Our Streams program as the lead person for his local chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America.
Copeland remarked “The Virginia Save Our Streams program is nationally recognized as the most scientifically rigorous aquatic insect citizen science monitoring program in the nation. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ) incorporates data from VA Save Our Streams in their biennial Water Quality Assessments, because citizen science is very well recognized in Virginia. In fact, the VA DEQ provides a Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Grant award that the New River Conservancy has received for the last two years for our water quality sampling project with our Water Watcher volunteers.”
Springhouse is an intergenerational, vitality-centered learning community in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia. To learn more about NRC Water Watchers and water monitoring, please visit https://newriverconservancy.org/research/
