Registration for this year’s Ohio Watershed Academy, an online professional development course for current and future watershed leaders, runs through the end of the day today, Wednesday, Oct. 9.
watersheds
Today: ‘To stand at the edge of the sea’
(Photo: Hawksbill turtle, iStock)
Today, June 8, we celebrate World Oceans Day.
Even in Ohio, of course, we’re connected to the oceans. By Lake Erie, the Ohio River, our local watersheds, farming practices, food choices, plastic use, energy sources, and on and on.
Why celebrate, honor and care for the oceans? Here’s the eloquent, wise Rachel Carson in her 1941 book Under the Sea-Wind: “To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.”
Celebrating scenic rivers
Hope Taft addresses the @CFAES_OSU Environmental Professionals Network about efforts to protect Ohio's Scenic Rivers, recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Ohio Scenic Rivers Act.
Photo © Anthony Sasson pic.twitter.com/dXV7kVGkqx— TNC Ohio (@nature_ohio) February 13, 2018
Rivers run through the next EPN program
The next Environmental Professionals Network (EPN) breakfast program features Hope Taft, former First Lady of Ohio, and Bob Gable, scenic rivers program manager for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), presenting “For Love of Rivers: Celebrating 50 Years of the Scenic Rivers Act” It’s from 7:15 to 9:30 a.m. Feb. 13 on Ohio State’s Columbus campus.
Webinar looks at managing watersheds, has expert speakers from CFAES
CFAES’s Anne Baird and Joe Bonnell will present “Professional Development Needs of Water Resource Managers: Core Competencies” during a free webinar called “Developing Capacity for Local Watershed Management” from 2-3 p.m. CT (3-4 p.m. ET) May 18. The event is part of an ongoing series sponsored by the 12-state North Central Region Water Network. Learn more and register here. Baird and Bonnell are with the School of Environment and Natural Resources and OSU Extension’s Ohio Watershed Network.
Here be madtoms; or, how to dig this stream scene
Central Ohio’s Big Darby Creek, shown here, which is a National Scenic River and is a home, for example, of the endangered Scioto madtom, is the focus and setting of the June 11 breakfast program by the Environmental Professionals Network. (Photo: Analogue Kid licensed under CCA 2.5 via Wikimedia.)
Conservation tillage and water quality: Talk slated on ‘doable and affordable solutions’
Improving Ohio’s water quality, especially by cutting phosphorus and nitrogen runoff, will be the focus of a daylong discussion at next week’s Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference. Details. (Photo: iStock.)
Does Bt corn affect stream life?
Do bits and pieces from genetically modified Bt corn plants affect non-target insects living in nearby streams? The University of Maryland’s Bill Lamp talks about his research and findings at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25, in a presentation hosted by CFAES’s Department of Horticulture and Crop Science. In Columbus, with a video link to CFAES’s research arm, OARDC, in Wooster. Details.
‘Cleaning Up America’s Rivers’ to be live-streamed
Chad Pregracke’s Feb. 24 talk to the Environmental Professionals Network in Columbus, “Cleaning Up America’s Rivers,” will be live-streamed on YouTube starting at 8:45 a.m. EST. Tune in at youtu.be/IV8XTNGIngM.
Pregracke is founder and president of Living Lands & Waters, a not-for-profit group that works to take trash out of major U.S. rivers. In 2013, he was named CNN’s Hero of the Year for his efforts.
As always, both members and nonmembers of the network are welcome to attend the program in person. The registration fee includes breakfast. Get details here.
Toward bluer big rivers
CNN’s 2013 Hero of the Year, who works to clean up America’s major rivers one piece of trash at a time, will speak Feb. 24 at Ohio State. Chad Pregracke, founder of Living Lands & Waters, will headline February’s Breakfast Club program by the Environmental Professionals Network. Registration is free for the first 280 Ohio State students to sign up. (Photo: Missouri River, iStock.)