Stream Team at Blackleggs Creek, Indiana County

The Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team held part three of the highly successful Clean Streams Practicum training program the last weekend of October at Twin Falls State Park near Mullens, WV.

ACCWT is a partnership between AmeriCorps VISTA and the Office of Surface Mining. They place full-time, paid volunteers into the oft forgotten hollers of Appalachia; those tight-knit communities devastated by abandoned mine drainage and other coal legacy troubles. ACCWT is currently active in eight states across coal country.

This is the first of two fall trainings, one for northern coalfields groups (PA, OH, MD, N. WV) and one for southern coalfields groups (S. WV, VA, TN, KY, AL) in mid-November. These meetings are the final component of a year-long pilot project, providing assistance to Appalachian watershed groups working to build capacity across the region.

The Clean Streams Practicum began last spring with two identical three day long trainings held in March and April. The group was split into Northern and Southern Coalfields to accommodate the large size of the group. Over the summer, 31 Summer Associate positions were placed throughout coal country with the attendees, at no cost to them. The purpose being to implement the practicum project they designed at training.

These endeavors ranged from macro invertebrate (a.k.a. bug) sampling to updating a membership database, to using a GPS unit to map a watershed. The program was so successful that the AmeriCorps VISTA program highlighted it as one of the best of the year.

After the incredibly productive summer practicum period, the Northern Coalfields Watershed Groups were brought back to Twin Falls this autumn to discuss their accomplishments and to continue learning about the varied resources available. The Southern Coalfields groups will attend an identical event in mid-November.

Dr. T. Allan Comp, director of ACCWT, gave opening remarks, and then participants were given the opportunity to introduce themselves. Next, the diligent OSM/VISTAs from the ACCWT office in Beckley, WV, took turns speaking while they gave the annual report. It was during this time and with much excitement that they announced the hiring of their first full-time, permanent staff member, April Trent who holds a master’s degree in Strategic Leadership.

Next, Sarah Walters, a 2-month-new OSM/VISTA spoke to the group about the resources made available by the Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable to watershed groups in Appalachia. Mike and Mary Steinmaus of Rural Action in SE Ohio ended the opening night with a stimulating presentation entitled, “How to Approach Sustainability in Coal Country”.

Saturday began early but that didn’t slow down Peggy Mathews of Mathews Consulting. She spent her morning helping seasoned OSM/VISTAs and their sponsors write a fundraising plan. Meanwhile, Sonja Carlborg led a training session on grant writing for newbie OSM/VISTAs and sponsors.

After lunch on Saturday, EPA’s Bonnie Thie spoke about Targeted Watershed Assessment grants followed by Eric Stockton of the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Eric discussed grant opportunities with ARC. Duncan Wilson, coordinator of the practicum, presented Eric with a card of appreciation for ARC’s financial support of the practicum training, which provided sponsorship to distressed county groups. Cards were also signed for two other sponsors who helped to make the practicum possible, Patagonia and Southern Partners Fund. The ACCWT is very grateful to all of these groups for their generous support.

Late on Saturday afternoon the newer OSM/VISTAs learned about water monitoring from Greg Taylor, OSM/VISTA of the Upper Guyandotte Watershed Association in Mullens, WV and Evan Hansen of Downstream Strategies. Meanwhile, the rest of the participants discussed their ideas on how to solve the “wicked” issues of coal country. This topic was in follow-up, exploring the results of a recent report by the Kettering Foundation called “Engaging Communities”. Stacy Bouchard has recently joined the ACCWT staff as an OSM/VISTA who will work to further explore the reasons why people volunteer, particularly in Appalachia.

After all the seriousness of the day, it was a nice break to go into town to the Mullens Opportunity Center where the Rural Appalachian Improvement League or RAIL for short, had a dinner prepared to welcome the conferees. An Indian re-enactor entertained the group as “Outacite Ostenaco” as they enjoyed their repast, recounting the colorful history of the area. It was a lovely way to end the day.

Sunday ended early after presentations on Trail Development by Peggy Pings of the National Park Service, the Army Corps of Engineers by Randy Campbell, and Brownfield grants by Nicole Clarke of SRA International. Dr. Comp ended the day at noon and sent attendees home with a boxed lunch to-go.

Looking to the future for the Clean Streams Practicum: Last year, Hanna Wheeler, while serving as the OSM/VISTA for the Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable wrote a proposal called “Hope and Hard Work” for the EPA watershed capacity-building grant program. It was announced at training that the proposal was chosen. The grant will be used to replicate the Clean Streams Practicum program on a larger basis for the next three years.

Contributed by Stefanie Chitester, an OSM/VISTA volunteer with the Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation who also serves part-time with the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team. She can be contacted by sending email to: stefaniechitester@yahoo.com .

11/16/2007