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Watershed Alliance Spotlight!
Anna Rendell-Baker Capstone Thesis Project
Anna Rendell-Baker is a senior at Champlain College studying environmental policy and law. Her personal interests revolve around ecosystem services and she is constantly fascinated by the natural processes of the world around her. For her capstone thesis project Anna designed and tested a Watershed Model lesson. She has explored the theory and practice of environmental education over year through her work as a watershed educator. Her capstone thesis focused on digging deeper into how to integrate place-based and local stories of water quality into her teaching. The watershed alliance will be adopting the curriculum Anna developed. Congratulations Anna!
Watershed Alliance Spotlight!
Annie Schatz Shares Facine Expertise with Charlotte Elementary!
Annie is the Lake Champlain Sea Grant ECOamericorps member for 2016-2017. She joined the Green Infrastructure Collaborative (GIC), a program of the Lake Champlain Sea Grant and Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, in fall 2016. When she can sneak a little time, she works with us here at the Watershed Alliance to add her insight and enthusiastic energy to our K-12 outreach programming. This week, Annie designed a fascine and live stake planting at Charlotte Elementary as part of a collaboration between the Lake Champlain Sea Grant and the Lewis Creek Association to protect and restore shoreline in the Lake Champlain Basin. Fascines are stems and branches from live woody plants tied together in bundles. These branches will take root and help to maintain the structural integrity of the bank.
Alongside a team of Watershed Alliance Educators, Maya, Anna and emeritus Krista Hoffsis, Annie lead a team of 5 diligent and energetic sixth grade students through the process assessing a need for and and implementing a riparian buffer between a parking lot and the schools beloved stream and wetland area. The growth of these facines will be monitored by the students over the next six months to determine what the next step will be in working to slow, spread and sink runoff from the parking lot and adjacent fields.
(Annie, Krista, and Anna prep the facine bed)
Watershed Alliance Spotlight! Maya Dizack Leads a Sea Grant Amphibian Expedition: "Big Night!"
An incoming first year UVM student from Racine, Wisconsin. Maya's midwestern upbringing is often associated with corn cobs, cheese, and a strong football culture, though Lake Michigan has actually had the most profound influence on her life. From an early age, Maya participated in Water Action Volunteers (WAV), a program that teaches citizen scientists to monitor water quality and record data. In recent years, Maya has become increasingly interested in alpine vernal pools since these neat ecosystems can teach us a ton about the effects of climate change. Her introduction to "Big Night" (the early Spring mass migration of amphibians to vernal pools) started during the time she spent at the semester school Conserve, where the school grounds had so many vernal pools it was hard to not step on the abundant and quite active amphibians roaming about.
Eastern Spotted Salamander, Burlington Vermont. April 11, 2017 (Photo Credit: Michael McGuire)
Watershed Alliance Spotlight! Ashley Eaton
The Watershed Alliance staff and interns are incredibly talented!
Check out a recent Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources spotlight on our Watershed and Lake Education Coordinator Ashley Eaton!
STEP 1) Fill out Teachers Application (click)
STEP 2) Email amelia.tarren@uvm.edu to setup a phone meeting
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Keep up with Watershed Alliance - Winter Newsletter
Here is snapshot from our Fall Season:
