River Day in Sidney

The River Stewards traveled to Sidney for a River Day with students from Kindergarten to 3rd grader to talk about water safety and recreation on the rivers or other bodies of water. The field day event took place at Tawawa park and River Stewards took students out in canoes to put safety skills into action, while enjoying being outside. For many of the students it was their first time in a boat. The Rivers Institute was highlighted in an article in the Sidney Daily News.


The experience with the students, especially at their young age was a great addition to our educational outreach efforts! Seeing students, especially at their age, making connections to the water surrounding them was amazing. It is also so beneficial to continue to gain a regional perspective of our efforts surrounding the rivers.



Sorry, we are unable to access the article on-line, so it is pictured below.

Paddle in the Park

Paddle in the Park was on June 4th this year held by Five Rivers MetroParks at Eastwood MetroPark. The Summer River Steward Interns volunteered their help and expertise with the event. Alex G. and Bethany R. were safety boaters out on the lake keeping people within the designated safety area while Jenny B., Nicole G., Lindsay R., Taylor P., and I helped fit people into boats and get them into the water. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. There were over 1,000 people who filled out release forms to get in the water and many others who visited the 15+ exhibitor's tents. Overall, it was an amazing day. I got to help so many adults, children, and families into kayaks and canoes. I also got to pet more than 10 dogs and two MetroParks horses. It was an amazing day. The River Stewards are also known for getting their friends to come out and participate in MetroPark events like GearFest. We got several of our friends to come to the park and try out the boats. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves and said so several times. It was just so nice to see all the people out padding around in boats and trying out paddle boards. All the events put on by MetroParks are great. But by being a River Steward and getting involved, it really makes me love the city of Dayton so much more. Maybe I'll stay here after college.

Rivermobile Planning, June 2nd

Last Thursday, June 2nd was the kick-off meeting for the design phase of the Rivermobile. River Steward summer interns along with faculty met to brainstorm potential ideas of goals and student learning outcomes gained through the Rivermobile. Steve Wilhoit, Director of Writing, Research, and New Media, helped the group with a process for brainstorming ideas. Small groups organized thoughts into charts based on skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are beneficial to students participating in the Rivermobile, as well as undergraduate students who will plan and execute it.

These ideas will be formed into student learning outcomes that will be distributed and discussed at the Rivermobile Planning Workshop on June 16th. Below are a couple pictures from the day.

SOCHE Presentation

Sarah, McLean, and I presented at the 2011 Ohio Higher Education Sustainability Conference. The conference took place at Sinclair Community College and was hosted by the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE) and the Ohio Board of Regents. The event hosted various speakers on higher education and the work being done to collaborate and provide students and the community opportunities to become more sustainable. We shared with the group the Rivers Institute and highlighted the many projects we participate in with U.D. and the community.

Sarah shared information on the Rivers Institute and our goals to connect U.D. and the community to the river. Also, she described our dedication to undergraduate education and research based on the river.
McLean and I were able to share our experiences as part of the Rivers Institute and their connections to collaboration. McLean discussed how her experiences in mini-course have impacted her views on environmental/social justice policies and acquiring an internship with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality.
I talked about how experiences in the River Stewards program have impacted my view on education as well as the immeasurable experience being the educational outreach intern has lent to my views on community engagement and role as a future teacher.

Rob Harmon: How the market can keep streams flowing

Interesting. I'm not 100% convinced but maybe this can spark some discussion with the stews!

The Cost of Natural Gas

Water is undoubtedly one of the most precious commodities on our Earth, but I don’t need to tell you that. Still, in both water rich and water poor societies we continue to put our limited freshwater supplies in danger during our quest for new sources of fossil fuels, even here in Ohio.

Hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking,’ is a process of extracting natural gas from shale located hundreds, even thousands, of feet below the earth. It involves shooting a mixture of water, gravel, sand, and undisclosed toxic chemicals into deep wells to fracture the shale in attempts to bring the gas to the surface. Thanks to advancements in technology fracking is now an economically feasible way to get at these resources. In Ohio landowners as near as Yellow Springs have been approached about leasing the minerals rights under their property for fracking.

Fracking has been seen as a potential threat for three reasons: the possibility of aquifer and water table contamination, water depletion, and waste water disposal. Across the nation wells have been contaminated with the fracking water used by energy companies, making it impossible to drink. The process uses 3-6 million gallons of water per well, with only a small portion recoverable and none suitable for human consumption. With hundreds of wells in a given area, it quickly becomes a drain on the region’s aquifer and water resources. Finally, recent articles and studies suggest that most waste water facilities do not have the capacity to adequately treat this by-product, releasing a toxic and radioactive water back into our river systems.

What can we do about it? During Power Shift 2011 Ohio students will have the opportunity to join together to discuss how we can organize and influence change to stop fracking from spreading in our state. The Ohio Student Environmental Coalition is generously offering to help subsidize costs for up to 10 UD students interested in attending Power Shift in Washington D.C April 15-18th. If you or any student you may know is interested in more information about this amazing opportunity, please contact me at mclean.i.johnson@gmail.com. If left unchecked, fracking could cause serious problems across Ohio and to all of our watersheds.

New 1913?

I was reading a copy of the Dayton Daily News today and stumbled upon the article about the flooding in the area: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/more-rain-this-week-flooding-still-a-concern-1099101.html?cxtype=rss_local-newsIn the paper edition, it shows a large picture of Taylorsville Dam witthe water level nearly reaching the grass. If you guys remember, this is where we start orientation. Remember the calm, peaceful water as we put our boats in? The images today and yesterday of the river show gushing water, almost looking like rapids. It made me think of the show I watched the other day, and how relative depth area. I was watching 'Hooked' on National Geographic the other night (crazy show about wild fishing adventures all over the world, kind of like river monsters) and they were on the Congo River doing research on the some estimated 300,000 species of fish. The river was estimated, by the scientific team, to be deeper than 8500 ft in certain spots. The rapids, along an 80 mile stretch, are insurpassable by boat other than kayak. The episode showed four kayakers take on the huge rapids and whirpools. It's a great episode, if you get a chance to watch it. Here's a bit showing the rapids and some fish of the river:http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/hooked/3826/Videos/06321_00Here in Dayton, some areas are flooded just past 12 ft, like in Sidney. In the DRC, the Congo River is 100x the depth of the flooded Great Miami. It is scary for the locals here to think back to the 1913 flood, and the damage current levels might cause. Then you compare it to the monstrous size and power of the Congo, and the local peoples' scary situation, with their dependency on such an unstable resource (besides the civil war and dangerous rebel-controlled areas along the river).