Volume 20, Number1 Winter 2009
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Friends forms Partnership for Intensive Monitoring
of Impaired Streams - Volunteers Needed!
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Friends of the North Fork, along with Friends of the Shenandoah River (FOSR) and Shenandoah University (SU), have raised funding through grants from the VA Environmental Endowment and Agua Fund and generous contributions from several of our members that will allow us to embark on an intensive study of three streams in the Shenandoah River Basin. Cedar Creek, a tributary of the North Fork, will serve as the pilot location and be the primary focus of our early efforts. Physical stream evaluations will be completed and stream segments will be monitored for five major parameters: E. coli and benthic life (critters living on stream bottom), flow, turbidity, and nutrients. FOSR has recently updated their lab facility at SU and with grant funding we now have the capacity to analyze dozens of E. coli samples at once, rather than only a few. Monitoring of the selected segments has three major goals: to establish long term trends for these stream segments; to establish baseline conditions for impaired streams so that one can assess the water quality impact of the installation of Best Management Practices (BMPs); to use this project as an opportunity to involve volunteers and to educate decision makers and the public about water quality. We need lots of volunteers for this effort and will be soon be distributing a “job” description describing what will be involved for the various types of sampling we will be doing. With the initial planning meeting under our belts, and John Holmes at the helm, we are very excited about getting things underway. Stay tuned to our website -www.fnfsr.org - for more information and volunteer opportunities! [Big thanks to member and webmaster Susie Wilburn for keeping everything up to date and looking spectacular on the Friends’ website!]
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| Thanks to Andrew Thayer for this photo |
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North Fork Notes from Leslie Mitchell-Watson, Friends’ ex. director
Happy New Year from Friends! As you can see from the lead
headline, we are off to a rip roaring start for the beginning of 2009 -
Friends’ 21st year of serving as the Voice for the North Fork.
We’ve managed thus far in these difficult economic times, and
with the help of our generous and dependable membership,
to secure funding for a number of ambitious and important
water quality monitoring projects and to support our educational
programs and advocacy efforts - for now.... Indeed, we
are a small, but very busy group: we’re working to protect
water resources and conserve agricultural land in Shenandoah
County, partnering to investigate drinking water quality
and improve impaired streams in the North Fork watershed,
educating our friends and neighbors about the importance of
water quality protection, and advocating for state and federal
funding for fish kill research. Whew! and that’s just the
tip of the iceberg!
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Friends of the North Fork Workshop Series - Spring 2009
"Between stimulus and response is our greatest power - the freedom to choose." Steven Covey
This quote touched my heart last month as I was doing research for a children’s program at my church. Choice is something we can embrace or ignore. It is something we drill into kids as we tell them to “Make good choices today!” Choice is something we are given as members of a democratic society and as human beings.
I choose to be focused on the environment because of the influences that I had early in life from my parents. My dad taught people to be environmental science teachers. My art teacher mom helped him teach a college course on living off the land and conservation. My science teacher brother has a degree in botany and I remember many trips to see some plant or fern in a corner of some forest. I preferred trees.
Learning obscure things, embracing and identifying the things that grow in the corners and nooks, looking under rocks, under water, underground. This is what makes us naturalists - people who care about nature and are interested in learning the bits about it. The more you know about something, the more invested you are to make those good choices about protecting it.
The Friends of the North Fork 2009 Workshop Series allows you to learn about nature and water issues and have fun at the same time. This year we will host classes ourselves and again partner with the Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation Department. The first workshop will be a truly hands on Make and Take Rain Barrel workshop.
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NEXT WORKSHOP:Make and Take Rain Barrel Workshop - III
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2008 Time: 5:30 - 7:30 pm Location: Old Edinburg SchoolCost: $35.00 - includes rain barrel and all necessary parts (we’ll provide the tools!)
Rain barrels are back and this time you get to make your very own, from start to finish (o.k. we supply the CLEAN barrel but you drill all of the holes and assemble all of the parts!). Your registration includes a covered 50 gallon plastic barrel that you will convert to a water saving device and take home to catch rain water from your roof for later use around your house. Besides helping the environment, an obvious reason for catching rainwater is to save money. You can also hold water from rain storms to use during times of drought, especially if there are water restrictions in your community. Please register for this class with the Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation Department. You can download a registration/payment form from their website at www.scpr.info or call their office at 984-3030. Call Leslie or Cindy if you have any questions 450-8550.
Katie Register, with Clean Virginia Waterways will be teaching the Rain Barrel class and also will also lead a “train the trainer” class from 7:30-8:30 pm for those interested in holding their own rain barrel construction workshop. Please call Cindy to let her know if you are interested in this portion of the class - no extra cost.
More Workshops....*River Rock and Roll - Saturday April 4*Nature Inspired Mosaic Serving Tray Workshop - Saturday April 11*Nature Inspired Beginning Stained Glass *Workshops - Saturday and Sunday May 30 and May 31.
Water NewsUSGS Drinking Water Study:The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently released a report entitled Organic Compounds in Potomac River Water Used for Public Supply Near Washington, D.C, 2003-2005. 26 compounds were identified in either or both the source water (raw river water from the Potomac) and finished (treated drinking water) water that scientists analyzed. Interestingly, USGS detected some of the same herbicides in finished water that Friends’ 2007 study found in water we analyzed from the North Fork in 2007 (River Health Report, 2008). Thus, agricultural herbicides, like atrazine, are not being removed from drinking water during the water treatment process in Washington area facilities. It is likely therefore that these chemicals are not removed from drinking water in the North Fork watershed in cases where the raw water is being taken from the river. Notably, USGS did not analyze samples for hormones or pharmaceuticals. While the amounts of most of the compounds identified in the USGS study are quite low, human health benchmarks have not been established for many of the chemicals and their synergistic and cumulative effects on humans and animals have not been established. Friends of the North Fork are currently developing a report on how best to test for these chemicals in our drinking water supply and we will be asking state and local officials to conduct the necessary testing so that the citizens of the Valley are aware of what organic chemicals are in their drinking water. The USGS study is part of an ongoing survey of the Nation’s drinking water and can be viewed at our website - www.fnfsr.org.
Volunteer NewsNew Volunteer Coordinator!Friends would like to welcome Lee Jette who has graciously offered his time and effort as our new Volunteer Coordinator and database guru and education committee member. Lee is retired from the telecommunications arena but has let no grass grow under his retired feet. A master gardner, master naturalist, and over all master of all technical and financial matters, Friends is honored that he has chosen to focus his volunteer efforts on this group after spending a number of years serving as the Volunteer Farm’s Chief Financial Officer. Now, if we can only get Lee’s wife Toni to let him stay home from vacationing for a little while....Ha! Thank you, Lee, for stepping up to help Friends help the North Fork!
Volunteer Opportunities:Whether you like to be outdoors, indoors, write letters, file paperwork, enter data, take water samples, identify water critters, teach workshops, create Power Points, organize events, or have GIS skills - WE NEED YOU! Please contact Leslie at leslie.watson@fnfsr.org or 540-459-8550 if you are interested in volunteering to help the North Fork.
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Calendar of Events - 2009
February 12 - Friends Board Meeting - 6:30pm
March 12 - Friends Board Meeting - 6:30pm
March 14 - Friends Cleanup - 8:30am at office.
March 17 - Rain Barrel workshop - 5:30pm - Edinburg School (Shen. Parks and Rec. Dept.)
April 4 - Friends Cleanup - 8:30am at office
April 4 - Friends Workshop - River Rock painting
April 9 - Friends Board Meeting
April 11 - Friends workshop
April 25 - Friends Annual Membership Meeting
Friends Board Members and StaffBoardRon Falyar - President
Gary Proctor - Treasurer
Mary Gessner
John Holmes
Margaret Lorenz
Jack Lorenz
Kim Uhl
StaffCindy Frenzel - Education Coordinator
Leslie Mitchell-Watson - Executive Director
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| In honor of Friends' 20th year this group hiked to the First Spring. |
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Thanks to our 2008 Year End ContributorsRob Arner, Donald & Rita Aubin, Lt. Col. Grey & Brenda Axtell, Venitta & Lewis Barrett, Priscilla Blosser-Rainey, Chris & Ralph Bolgiano, Roger & Deb Bolland, Milton & Magaret Boyce, Stanley Brock Jr., Betty Carey, Melinda & Daniel Chitwood, Joan Comanor, James & Barbara Costello, Dr. John & Elizabeth Cottrell, Jeff & Anne Dalke, Lee & Rita Dieter, Dan Donohoe, Don Downey, Francis & Mary Flaherty, Anne Frase, Marian French, Kindy French, Jay & Kim Hafner, Warren & Barb Halvorson, Virgnia Dickens Harris, Burce Hatton, John Holmes, Lee & Toni Jette, Dr. Judith K. Jones, David Kaeuper, Joe & Jackie LaPiana, Richard & Martha Layman, Jack & Margaret Lorenz, Ken & Sylvia Lyon, Harry Marien, Bruce & Vicki McClinton, Michael & Judith McKiernan, Jane Mintz, Jerry & Susan Mitchell, Sue Mobley, Pat Munoz, Margaret Nelson, Ken Nilsen, Mark Obrinsky, George Ohrstrom II, Ken & Attracta Owens, Stephen & Victoria Palmerton, Steve & Wendy Pieper, John & Ann Pinto, Richard & Sheila Rybak, Matthew Shaffer, Russell Shay, Carol Stroebel, Ron Testerman, Stephanie Tilden, David & Karen Timer, Kay & Jack Townshend, Sam Turner, Kim Uhl & Sara Garland, Leslie & Alan Watson, David & Mirian Whitney, Jane Wilson, Anne Zirkle and The Sign Post - THANK YOU!
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