Katie Swanson, Christy Bowersox, and Allison Raymond in the back row. Amy Curry and Laura Lockard in front.

Students from Lycoming College spent their summer working on projects for the college’s Clean Water Institute and another student from Slippery Rock University worked with a nonprofit group on watershed projects. Send us your stories of how you spent your summer internship so we can feature them here!

Lycoming College Students

"I'm having a great time. I get to canoe most every day on the Susquehanna River; I spend a lot of time outdoors; and there's lots of variety which keeps it interesting," Laura Lockard sums up her summer internship at Lycoming College, where she is one of eight students working on projects to improve the area's watershed.

Dr. Mel Zimmerman, a Lycoming College professor of biology founded The Clean Water Institute in 1999. It is unique among small colleges.

The Institute gives Lycoming biology and environmental science students the opportunity to do significant field work at an undergraduate level in a growing area of environmental importance. And it's made environmental science a very popular major.

"I really enjoyed the fish electro-shocking," says Laura.

The Williamsport area, where Lycoming College is located, is surrounded by small streams and woodlands. Some of the best trout fishing in the United States is close at hand. The students are working on seven different watershed projects- in and around the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, which is the largest in terms of acreage watershed in Pennsylvania and the major component of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Laura Lockard, a recent graduate from Ephrata, Pa. is using the canoe to conduct a water quality study of the West Branch of the Susquehanna along a 75- mile stretch from Lock Haven to Sunbury. Laura usually canoes 6 to 7 miles a day, taking GPS sightings and pictures of every island in the river, testing the discharges from each sewage treatment plant, and monitoring water quality at 12 different sites once a month.

This is Laura's third year and she's off to graduate school in the Fall to pursue an advanced degree in environmental chemistry.

Christy Bowersox, a senior biology major from New Columbia, Pa., is studying erosion. She is also on the job by 7:30 a.m., walking the stream in hip waders. She stops every half mile to take a riparian assessment. “It does keep you cool,” she said of the waders, “although it can get hot in open fields.”

One of her projects was to study the habitat around the Montour Preserve, about 25 miles from campus, which proved to be an eye-opening experience. "Although I live in the region and had been to Montour Preserve before, I didn't really know how much erosion there was," she says. Now she sees it closer to home

Funding for the interns, for these are paid internships, comes from a variety of sources including individual watershed associations. But a significant amount has come from the Growing Greener Project. Since 1999, the CWI has received over $200,000 in grants of its own.

The rewards of a summer doing field work are intangible. “I saw a nifty belted kingfisher,” says Bowersox, “and I heard a scarlet tanager, this year.”

Other student projects included:

Amy Curry, a May graduate from Fallen Timber, Pa., is working on the completion of the final plan of the Pine Creek River Conservation Plan, a project funded by the Endless Mountains RC&D- Pine Creek Grant. Pine Creek watershed is 981-square mile area in the northern part of Pennsylvania known for its scenic Pine Creek gorge.

Lycoming College interns have worked on this project for the past three years, compiling pages of tables and information that went into the plan. Dr. Zimmerman and the Clean Water Institute were cited for their efforts in July 22 issue of the Williamsport Sun Gazette.

Lower down on the Susquehanna River watershed, Brad Musser, a senior biology major from Mifflinburg, Pa., and Katie Swanson, a junior biology major from Eldred, Pa., are working on a physical stream assessment of the tributaries of Buffalo Creek which flows into the Susquehanna. These assessments include stream chemistry and aquatic health of each part as well as assessment of stream and bank erosion.

Tyler Machamer, a sophomore from Williamsport, Pa. is conducting a functional use assessment of the dry hydrants of Lycoming, Sullivan, Tioga, Bradford, Wyoming, and Susquehanna Counties.

Tyler is mapping all of these emergency hydrants and making sure they can be used in the event that water has to be pumped directly from a stream to combat a rural fire.

Brandon Ford, a senior biology major from Montoursville, Pa., is working on the completion of a water quality study and data on two acid mine seeps on the tributaries to Lycoming Creek.

Allison Raymond, a junior biology major from Edison, N.J. (not everyone can be from Pennsylvania), is working on the development of a website and stream restoration database as part of the Keystone Stream Team.

For more information, visit the Clean Water Institute webpage.

My name is Kyle Durrett and my journey to Stream Restoration started from far away. I come from the Pacific Northwest in the land of clouds, mountains, and giant evergreen trees.

I have lived in the dry desert land, home to Saguaro cacti, tumbleweeds, and Roadrunners. I spent eight years in the snowcapped mountains with boundless vistas, and hills where you can still hear the Wapiti bugle in the cool morning air.

These days I put down roots in the land of rolling green hills where every season brings new life. I have traveled around the world far and wide, and my eyes have seen wild places on three continents, and in my adventures I’ve had death flash before me more than once.

I most recently lived in the Swan Valley or northwestern Montana, surrounded by a wilderness largely untouched by man, and mountain streams full of endangered trout.

After attending the University of Montana for a time, I came back to Western Pennsylvania to finish my degree in Environmental Science at Slippery Rock University.

In my quest to stay working and interested in the field of my degree I began volunteering at Stream Restoration and monitoring water quality in the Slippery Rock watershed this Spring.

Now this summer I lend a hand here doing whatever I am asked, whether it be planting a wetland or typing reports.

I am proud to say that I have added some color and FLARE to our projects at Stream Restoration with splashes of watercolor and an artistic eye here and there.

I am excited about the work that I am doing and all that I am learning in my time here, and maybe soon I’ll see you at a watershed meeting and tell you about it!

(The Catalyst, Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition)

8/12/2005