Wetland Flood Absoprtion Demo?

You may recall this factoid from our wetlands discussion: One acre of wetland can absorb up to 1.5 million gallons of flood water. After a few back-of-the-napkin calculations, I estimate that that 1.5 million gallons over an acre works out to be a water depth of about 1.4 m (4.5 ft.). Not bad! My question is this: is there anyway we could demonstrate this in (or out of) the classroom? It'd make for a really impressive demo if we could. Thoughts? Ideas?

VT Watershed Science, Education and Leadership: Stormwater Engineering & Management

Here are the links I was talking about in response to Nancy's post about Stormwater Management...

http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/EnvironmentalServices/epo/PDFfiles/OneRoof.pdf
http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/EnvironmentalServices/epo/EnvironmentalServicesEpoRainBarrel.aspx
http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/EnvironmentalServices/epo/EnvironmentalServicesEpoRainGarden.aspx

Doing the research for the stream restoration project, Donna and I found the process to be much more detailed than we originally thought. We hope our powerpoint and guidelines will be helpful for those interested in either doing their own stream restoration project in their neighborhood, or in integrating a stream restoration project into their curriculum.

As you will remember from my lovely back yard as witnessed at the cookout following the 'field trip' to Lake Accotink, small steps by homeowners can make a big difference in the health of an urban stream. The Park Service recommends that homeowners whose yards contain or abutt a stream rake leaves to the stream bank rather than bagging them, and pile any sticks shed from trees in said leaf piles. This provides a place for amphibians and snakes (augh!) to hybernate, and keeps the material out of our landfills. Plus it is much easier to rake stuff downhill than constantly stopping to bag.

We enjoyed our walks in the woods with all, and hope that we can keep in touch with both our cohort and you newbies!

Sincerely,
Donna and Nancy

GREEN program

This Earth Force thing seems pretty cool and I would encourage you guys to check it out (especially you middle school teachers). The process seems relatively simple and would be a very personal activity for students as it would be looking in their own back yards. Arlington Public Schools has had some good success with it and HB Woodlawn won a Presidential award last year!

Watershed Education

I hope everybody got a chance to peruse the weblinks Matt and I put on our watershed education presentation. I know most of us (all of us?) do not directly deal with environmental science but there are plenty of opportunities for staff development (licensure points) during the summer months plus other small projects that would be useful after SOLs or even on those days we need a break from our normal routine. Since we're all almost done with our degrees (hopefully) it's an opportunity to branch out and become involved in something new and different. One of the links is to environment grants available to teachers and schools. This could be an untapped resource and a way to get money for your classes or for the environmental club at your school.

Thanks

Thanks for hearing me out and providing some feedback on my thoughts on collaborative wikis. It was good to get some other views, as my ideas can get pie-in-the-sky without lots of data.

Hope GalAXy hut was fun!

Stream Corridor

Donna and Nancy, both of you did great job in your presentation. Though I was not physically present at the site but viewing your powerpoint provides me with crystal clear ideas about stream corridor.

You two are very informative . Excellent resource for AP Bio./ IB Bio. and Environmental courses.
Keep up the good work!

Anjuman