Autumn in Appalachian Ohio is simply beautiful. On October 14th, fourteen of our CD team members gathered in Marietta and enjoyed the fall colors during our quarterly team meeting. We had the pleasure of meeting four new hires: Laura Fuller (CD Educator, Noble County), Gary Kuhn (Program Manager, Alber Enterprise Center), Amanda Osborne (CD Educator, Cuyahoga County), and Carla Wood (Program Coordinator, Alber Enterprise Center).
A special thanks to Darlene Lukshin who hosted our event, made the sternwheel boat arrangements and even had homemade refreshments, thanks to the wonderful team at the Washington County Extension office. What a great day!
Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District presentation:
Darlene also arranged for a presentation by Chief Engineer Boris Slogar and Chief of Conservation Ted Lozier from the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District with whom she’s worked on community projects (new low cost erosion/soil stabilization methods). They provided an historical context and pointed out how watersheds impact the local economy and environment. Their presentation showed implications of flooding on human systems (families, food supplies, safe water, etc.) and economic systems (business-to-business, tourism impacts, and others). In short, we learned about numerous resources that the Conservancy Districts (here and across Ohio) hold, and that there is great potential for community development projects and partnerships with and through them.
Muskingum River Sternwheeler Cruise:
Although it may have sounded like just a nice way to enjoy lunch, the river boat cruise actually turned into another history lesson. We locked through Devol’s Dam, the only remaining manual turn lock in the country. Onboard, we learned about early settlement in the area, and heard about many of the economies that early residents enjoyed. I was reminded of our 2014 Extension Annual Conference at which we looked back at history in order to consider our future. This is a great approach to planning. We finished the day with some great conversation and did planning for our 2016 CD section of JCEP.
(Submitted by Brian Raison, Assistant Professor; Interim Assistant Director, CD; CD Educator, Miami County & Top of Ohio EERA; and Miami County Extension Director)