they already knew that the surrounding watershed was heavily forested and suburban compared to the mostly impervious surfaces they had seen in maps of downtown Washington DC. This site was more likely to have a good collection of pollution-sensitive critters. After a competitive interlude of skipping rocks in the nearby, rather shallow reach of the Potomac River, everyone climbed the 200 vertical feet back up the trail. The 90+ degrees of heat hit hard as it reflected off the parking lot pavement, contrasting sharply with the coolness of the shady stream site. The entire group retreated to the air-conditioned park headquarters, where they cooled off and had their first good opportunity for group discussions.

The BTW module Let’s Get Sedimental was actually touched on everywhere the group went. After learning about water movement in and under urban DC, they toured Fort Washington National Park in Maryland, where the commanding view of the river helped explain the history of the fort itself. Here they learned about erosion from two major manmade sources: tobacco plantations and the clearing of land to enable the fort’s defenders to see approaching enemies. The field study activity for the module was done in Piscataway Park at Hard Bargain Farm, where the group also saw a Native American site and the outflow pipe from the wastewater treatment plant they had toured earlier. 

Trash is a major problem whenever humans meet nature. A floatable object, dropped anywhere, will eventually end up in a waterway. Talkin’ Trash is designed both to increase awareness of the problem and to do something about it. The BTW teachers and rangers found a moderate amount of trash along the shores of the Potomac River in Piscataway Park, a large percentage of it recyclable containers. But they also found trash in every other park, except for C &O Canal National Park, which became a trash-free park earlier this year. With no trashcans available, picnickers and visitors are invited to carry out what they carry in. The most interesting form of trash pickup was performed at Rock Creek Park, where ranger Pete Lonsway and teacher Patrick Earle stuffed floating cans and bits of Styrofoam into the tops of their chest waders as they were measuring stream speed.

The Institute is designed to train teachers and rangers in the BTW program. During the two weeks, the participants were also given opportunities to enrich their own knowledge and understanding of the natural world and the impact each person has on it. The group toured both the Dalecarlia water treatment plant and the Piscataway wastewater treatment plant to learn how water enters and leaves our homes. They canoed on the Anacostia River and toured the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. In every park they learned history and why the park is important to preserve for cultural, environmental and esthetic reasons. They wrote daily reflections to express their “right brain,” or emotional side, to complement their scientific activities. They gathered resources for information, funding, and student service opportunities.

The loftiest goal of the BTW program is to be a life-changing opportunity for young people. The Institute has been that for adults.

Aliens Invade the Billy Goat Trail! Rangers get Sedimental on the Mall! Watchdogs do DO in Rock Creek! Netspinners captured at Turkey Run! Teachers caught Talkin’ Trash!

by Libby Campbell, BTW Educator

No, these are not headlines from the National Enquirer. Every bit is true. The 2001 BTW Summer Institute trained 27 teachers and 11 NPS rangers in the 4^th annual two-week session, held earlier this summer. Visiting 6 National Parks and working through field studies in the 5 separate modules of the BTW program, the teachers and rangers bonded and bantered, learned and laughed, reflected and gained new respect for the natural world around us.

The Alien Invaders are non-native plant species that compete with or even replace native plants, lessening biodiversity and available food for wildlife. The BTW participants put hula hoops randomly along a 20-meter transect line and found 80% to 90% of the plants along the Billy Goat Trail at C & O Canal National Historical Park were aliens. By definition “alien,” or non-native plants, were brought here from somewhere else. Most are welcome additions to gardens or farms, such as petunias or potatoes. But a notorious few have far exceeded their welcome because of their very aggressive nature such as Japanese honeysuckle or kudzu. Replacing a biodiverse ecosystem of many species with a single invasive reduces food available for wildlife, and can be much less effective at controlling soil erosion.

The heavily visited National Mall, Washington Monument, President’s Park and Haines Point are not what most of us would think of as national parks, but this is the closest and most accessible greenspace for many urban residents. Over the centuries the ecosystem has been dramatically altered by filling in wetlands, channeling rivers and creating drainage systems. The successes and failures of these projects teach us a lot about how we affect the watershed and how it affects us. Maps of storm drains under the city showed BTW participants how water from the White House backyard ends up in the Potomac River. The first day of the Institute ended with a “Toast to Water” at Haines Point, land created with material dredged from the river.

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is as essential for aquatic life as the gaseous form is for us. In Rock Creek Park, using the BTW module Watershed Watchdogs, BTW participants measured DO and eight other chemical parameters of the creek water to determine that Rock Creek was in moderate to good health. Using the water testing kits was challenging for some, but it was enthusiastically acclaimed by all as a hands-on type of activity that students would love.

Turkey Run at George Washington Memorial Parkway was the site for Water Canaries, the module that assesses stream water quality by looking at small creatures living in the water. Netspinners are a type of caddisfly larvae commonly found in local streams. These insects and other invertebrates tell us, by their presence or absence, something about the health of the entire watershed. BTW participants lugged equipment and themselves down a steep path to the streambed to collect the macroinvertebrates using seine nets. Having studied topographic maps of the area,

Hello! My name is Anna Moline, and I am a National Park Service Ranger, and the Education Technician for the Bridging the Watershed program. I will be working with teachers and students in the BTW field studies. I have a M.S. in Forestry from the University of Montana and a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. In my most recent position as Peace Corps environmental education volunteer, I spent two years working with primary and secondary teachers in rural schools in Paraguay, South America. The focus of my work was developing curriculum using the school garden as a tool to teach science. While teaching in Paraguay, I became fluent in the county's two official languages: Spanish and Guarani. I am looking forward to meeting and working with the teachers and students involved in the Bridging the Watershed program.

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will be their hosts and facilitators at these sites and have guided practice with the main activities they will do during the field experience. Many of the newer teachers from out-of-state districts are introduced to national park resources that may take years to find out about on their own. The breadth and knowledge about the various sites that is held by the host rangers introduces knowledge that even long-term residents acknowledge they were unaware of in spite of having visited these areas on their own.

During field experiences in the national parks, I was surprised by the apprehensiveness of some students as they walked through the woods or were asked to enter a stream to collect macroinvertebrates. I asked why they seemed concerned and was told that in their neighborhoods, the woods were viewed as an unsafe place to venture. I inquired as to whether they had ever tried to catch a crayfish, tadpole, or frog in any of their local streams. Some had tried but remarked that the streams are full of trash and other debris or are perceived as polluted and dirty rendering them unsafe places to explore or play. I realize that experiences of going into the neighborhood woodlot and exploring a local stream I had as a child are unrealized in the lives of many of today's urban and suburban youth. With encouragement, many of these students were coaxed into the stream and began to participate. Within a short period, I observed apprehensive behavior subside and confidence grow. Some students became enthralled with what they were doing and were delighted to have captured a crayfish or other macroinvertebrate and share what they found with their peers. Many wanted to continue to search the water for more specimens beyond the time allotted for the bio-assessment activity and had to be asked to leave the stream. In the Bridging the Watershed program, these young people found a safe place to redeem a childhood experience previously denied to them. Allowing these students to experience the natural environment is the critical starting point for saving the greater watershed.

By participating in the Bridging the Watershed program, the teacher is providing students with science knowledge and experience that leads them through a cycle of thought-provoking ideas requiring critical thinking and analysis of real-world issues. Why aren't the woods and streams in my neighborhood nice, safe, and clean like the one visited here? Why is my neighborhood watershed in a degraded state and how was it that it was allowed to get in such poor condition? What if anything can be done to restore it and how do we go about doing this? The experience allows students to examine, question and devise solutions to complex issues in their watershed. They learn from their experience that people are the starting point and pivotal difference in saving a watershed.

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I don’t ask my students to do things that I would not do myself. Often times you try to sell students the necessity to complete things they have started, so I felt I needed to suck it up, get in the canoe and take on the mighty Anacostia River. It was an experience.   -Michael C. Tummings

Each time I go canoeing, I am always surprised how much I love the experience…The silent water…the watchful eye of all the creatures we encounter whether we see them or not…the sharpening on one’s own senses to take in the surroundings. And today…the overwhelming sense of the need to take care of trash!  -Jane B. Fundyga

Teamwork is hard. I would love to have my kids in canoes so they would have to work together. It would be good practice for labs and other group projects. And since on the water everybody can see and hear everything, it will become real obvious whose attitude needs work. 

 -Bill Prudden

The water was scattered with the litter of everything imaginable.
Oh what a shame!
Why is it like this on here in this part of the city?
We have got to educate, motivate, persist and insist
That this is a shame! 

-Teddi Lowery

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Optimizing the BTW Experience

The BTW program is designed to be teacher and student-friendly, to fit into school curricula and benchmarks and core learning goals, and to be a significant addition to classroom instruction. We would appreciate feedback from you in order to make the program better and to share your ideas with other teachers in our partnership. Please email us and let us know!

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