TU participates in Discover Nature Day in W. Va.

Participants in the Discover Nature Day at Seneca Rocks Discoery Center got a chance to pull garlic mustard,  an invasive plant that outcompetes native wildflowers and is harmful to several native butterfly species. (Photo: Mike Anderson, TU volunteer.)

By Travis Ferry

On April 30,  2016 roughly 1,300 kids and parents swarmed Seneca Rocks Discovery Center to learn about all things nature, at Discover Nature Day 2016.

The one-day, annual event is hosted by the US Forest Service (USFS) and showcases local nature to local kids and their families. It features a garlic mustard pull to encourage invasive species awareness, and a variety of stations with hands-on activities involving bat caves, live snakes and birds of prey, as well as fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates (aka stream bugs).

Trout Unlimited’s Potomac Headwaters Home Rivers Initiative (PHHRI) has been participating in Discover Nature Day for the past three years now, in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), USFS, WV Department of Environmental Protection’s Save Our Streams program (WVDEP SOS), the WV Council of Trout Unlimited (WVTU), and others.

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Trout Unlimited's Travis Ferry demonstrates how large woody material benefits streams and decreases erosion. (Photo: Kristin Stockton, AFHA AmeriCorps Member.)

The PHHRI and partners have been presenting booths with varying exhibits including benthic macroinvertebrates (WVDEP’s SOS), local fish from the Seneca Creek watershed (USFS/TU), fly tying (WVTU), fly casting (WVTU), and a stream table demonstrating erosion and how trees, root wads, and large boulders create fish habitat and prevent and slow stream bank erosion.

The aquatics room has been a major hit with participants and volunteers alike.

If you are interested in becoming involved in this event or others like it please contact Travis Ferry at 304-614-6699 or tferry@tu.org.

Travis Ferry is Trout Unlimited's West Virginia Volunteer Monitoring and Restoration Organizer, and an AFHA AmeriCorps member. TU works with Conservation Corps chapters and affiliates all across America on education, science and restoration projects.