Indiana teens help clean riverbank

Students from Bethany Christian School in Goshen, Ind., put a big dent in the litter problem along about 50 yards of riverbank in Letcher County.

A group of 12 students and two chaperones visited Letcher County this week to learn about coal mining issues in Appalachia. The school sends a group here each year as guests of the Mennonite Central Committee, the Appalachian office for which is in Whitesburg. Each year, students volunteer to do a stream cleanup.

I spent about 20 minutes Monday morning talking to them about history, pollution and the economy in our area, then led them on a one-mile hike along part of the trail system The Head of Three Rivers Project is working to build. At the end of the hike, the whole crew grabbed bags and gloves provided by the Letcher County School District and began picking up trash along the North Fork of the Kentucky River.

The Head of Three Rivers Project identified the location during a canoe survey around the end of March. The survey was intended to tell us what we're facing in the creation of a river trail for kayaking, canoeing, and wade fishing.

The cleanup on Monday moves us a little closer to having that river trail. Among the items found were two shopping carts, parts of a wheelbarrow, part of a vacuum cleaner and a long piece of steel attached to some sort of machinery. The biggest item tackled, by far, was a dump truck tire, still attached to the steel rim and filled with water. It took about six students, a college professor and me to roll the tire up the steep, muddy river bank and into the level, but we did it.

I want to publicly thank the group for their work. There seems to be less garbage in the river now than there used to be, and if we can remove the garbage that has been there for years it might stay clean. A few more cleanups like this, and we'll have a river trail that tourists and locals alike will be happy to use.

High school classes build wetland

Students at Letcher County Central High School built a wetland at the school this week as part of their science curriculum. The wetlands, which is about 40 feet in diameter, is on a part of the school property where students and teachers report seeing elk, turkey and other wildlife. Rough-wing swallows and other birds were sighted during construction.

Science teacher Regina Donour (at the center of the photo at left) applied for a grant from PRIDE to build the project. Tom Biebighauser, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service designed the wetlands.

While some people questioned whether Donour was building a "mosquito habitat," Biebighauser explained that healthy wetlands can actually reduce mosquito population because they provide places for the mosquitoes to lay their eggs. Natural predators are also attracted to the water, eat the eggs, and reduce the population of mosquitoes.

Species expected to make their home in the wetland include spotted salamanders, frogs, ducks, waterboatmen, backswimmers, damselfly larvae and dragonfly nymphs, all of which feast on mosquitoes and their eggs.

Conservation District gets $400,000 for brownfields

The US Environmental Protection Agency today announced two grants totalling $400,000 to the Letcher County Conservation District to assess brownfields in Letcher County.

Both grants are under the agency's Mine Scarred Lands program. One is specifically intended to study petroleum contamination at mine sites. Each grant will result in plans for redeveloping two to three sites chosen as top priorities during the assessment.

Former OSM/VISTA Evan Smith of the Head of Three Rivers Project wrote the grant applications for the district. Current OSM/VISTA Sam Adams will help the district develop a priority list of sites to study. Smith, Adams and Conservation District Chairman Ron Brunty travelled to Covington, Ky., today (April 7) to accept the grants.

Details of the work will be finalized over the coming weeks. The project will begin after July 1, when the Environmental Protection Agency releases the money.