YOUTH WATERSHED STEWARDSHIP

Our Youth Watershed Stewardship Program provides water quality education and promotes involvement in watershed protection through in-school and youth program activities, including the Sustainable Schools Project for Vermont elementary schools (http://www.bsdvt.org/schools/champlain/). This urban stream water quality protection and stream restoration pilot was developed in partnership with Burlington public schools and the Shelburne Farms Environmental Education Center.

Through the Explainers Program, a joint endeavor of the Marcelle and Patrick Leahy ECHO Center for Lake Champlain, VSA Arts of Vermont, and Lake Champlain Sea Grant (LCSG), we use art and technology to teach stream monitoring and science literacy to low-income and underserved teens. The Explainers Program helps raise public awareness of the health of streams in urban areas by supporting the teens' work in monitoring and evaluating the water quality of Potash Brook in South Burlington (http://www.uvm.edu/%7Eempact/youth/explainers.php3).

The Youth Environmental Service Program is a cooperative effort of LCSG and the Poultney-Mettowee Watershed Partnership in Vermont (http://vacd.org/pmnrcd/
news/volunteering.html). It provides water quality education for local youths and encourages them, along with their families, to volunteer for watershed and water quality community service projects. With a recent three year USDA CSREES grant, Lake Champlain Sea Grant, the University of Maine and University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension programs are developing a New England regional lakes education and action program. The tri-state project will develop an educational "best practices" package for water resources educators in the region, train Lake Stewards, and support water quality Youth Action Teams.

Since 2001 we have also supported the annual Ecosystem Exposition in Poultney, Vermont, in partnership with the Poultney-Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District and Green Mountain College in Poultney. More than 500 fifth and sixth grade students attend this environmental fair each year, participating in workshops on a range of topics from forestry, soils, and birds to watersheds, water pollution, and the ecosystems on the bottom of Lake Champlain.

With funding through a U.S. Department of Agriculture regional grant, University of Vermont Extension and Sea Grant have taught middle school students in Colchester and Winooski, Vermont, about the growing threats to coastal water quality through a water-themed day camp, water curriculum, water protection poster contest, and special educational displays.

In addition, LCSG supported a summer gardening program for underserved elementary school students through the Friends of the Burlington Area Community Gardens. This program teaches students environmentally sound gardening practices that help protect water quality in urban areas.