Monday Creek Restoration Project Volume 18, Issue We All Live Downstream Up the Creek E-Newsletter

Monday Creek holds 3rd annual Chinese Auction

Thank You On Thursday January 24, 2013, Rural to all of our Action’s Monday Creek Auction Restoration Project held Donors their annual Chinese Athens Book Center Auction at the Delyn Athens Veterinary Auditorium in New Straitsville, . Clinic Together we raised over B&C Carry Out, $700 from ticket sales, concession sales, and a 50/50 raffle. All proceeds from the auction will go toward Monday Beauty Hut Creek’s summer day camp for local youth, which was able to Ben and Katrina be offered free of charge last summer thanks to your Carpenter, Mt Airy generous support. Last year’s campers received a trip to The Farm Wilds Safari Park, fishing poles, t-shirts, water bottles, daily Blue Eagle Music local meals, as well as a fun week immersed in their natural Brennan's Coffee environment. The Monday Creek Restoration project would Café like to thank all of the auction attendees and donors for Carpenters Market making this year’s auction a huge success. We would also Chase Bank, Athens like to thank Rural Action’s Zero Waste Initiative Dodson's Chicken AmeriCorps for helping to make the Chinese auction a zero- Dominos waste event by providing composting and recycling. Haffa's Records The 2013 MCRP Hannah Brothers kid’s camp is scheduled Furniture for July 8 – 12, 2013. Huddle Auto Parts, Kids from 8 – 12 years of NAPPA age are welcomed. If you Hyacinth Bean know someone who Inhale Yoga Studio might be interested or Jackie-O's would like more Johnson Lawn Care information contact The auction was nearly a zero-waste Kinsel Sports MCRP - event, thanks to the composting and [email protected] Lamborn's recycling made available by (740) 394-2047. Little Professor Rural Action’s ZWI Bookstore Marolt's Florist and Garden Center Ohio University Student Group McBee Jewelry Volunteers Clean Up Illegal Dump Sites Millstone BBQ Mingo trading Co. Minutemen Press On Sunday, November 4, Nelsonville Empo- 2012, a group of 30 Ohio rium University students from United Net Plus Communi- Campus Ministries and the Water cations -ski Club spent the afternoon New Dimension teaming up with the Monday travel and Cruise Creek Restoration Project to New Stratisville clean up several illegal dump Resident sites in Monday Creek Ohio Valley Trading Watershed. All together, the and Exchange - Ath- group was able to recover 81 ens bags of trash and a whopping Ol Shaw Antique 172 tires. They also recovered three mattresses, two couches, two hoses, and one easy chair. The 5 sites were all Rescue within the , three in Hocking County Pizza Crossing on Lost Run Road, and two in Perry County. The US Forest PNC Bank, New Lex- service supported the group’s efforts by hauling the ington collected trash and tires away. Precision Imprints Both United Campus Ministries and the Water-ski Random House Club have volunteered with Monday Creek Restoration Rocky Boots Project in previous years, showing their strong commitment Roger and Cheryl to stewardship in their community. In addition to the dump Blosser site clean ups, part of the group also participated in a Rural Action maintenance project at an Acid Mine Drainage treatment Rural Action Sus- system. The Shawnee Steel Slag Leach Bed site required tainable Agriculture some routine weed control, and the students assisted staff Rural Action Zero in clearing the bed of plant growth so that the water Waste Initiative treatment would not be affected. Saving's Hardware Seals Flowers and Gifts Signworxs Snider Flautt Lum- ber Inc. Wa- tershed Group TC Consignment Shop The Cat's Meow The Happy Crow, How does this work? Nelsonville The Hawk's Nest This is a new feature column for Monday Creek New! Restoration Project Up The Creek Newsletter. Send in Tish's Treasures, your question, any question you may have about Nelsonville Monday Creek, The Monday Creek Restoration Project, water quality, or any watershed related question, and Tractor Supply Co. we will select one question to answer for each newsletter. Questions can be emailed to Universi-Tees [email protected]; mailed to: MCRP, P.O. Box Uptown Dog T- YOUR 129, New Straitsville, OH 43766; faxed or phoned in to (740) 394-2047. We cannot guarantee that we will Shirts QUESTION: answer each and every question, but we will do our Village Bakery best! The author of question will be credited in the article, or you can request to remain anonymous. Send White's Mill in your questions today! Whit's Ice Cream Wildwood Inn and Llama Farm Fall Tour Offers a Sneak-Peak into the ZoneZ Watershed

Each fall, the Monday Creek Restoration Project hosts The Monday a public tour to share some highlights from the watershed. Creek restoration The tour is open to everyone, and is a great chance to learn project is a more about the work being done by MCRP and their many partnership partners. This year, approximately 25 people attended the committed to tour and also enjoyed a free soup lunch provided by the MCRP crew. From those attendees, we gained 7 new members and improving raised $330 in donations, memberships, and t-shirt sales. The watershed health tour included stops at two acid mine drainage (AMD) treat- for the benefit of ment systems and a stop at the Greendale Wetland. the community. The tour started with a visit to the new limestone leach beds (LLB’s) in the Big 4 Hollow. This treatment system was completed in June 2012, and consists of two LLB’s and a small wetland. Each LLB is filled with a different size of limestone rock and as the water leaches through the stone-filled beds, the alkalinity of the limestone raises the pH of the water. The idea behind the double LLB system is to monitor the beds side by side to determine which size of limestone rock provides the best treatment for the longest time. We hope to use this information to de- sign better treatment systems in the future. The Ohio Kaabe Shaw describes the Department of Transportation provided funding for the Big 4 limestone leach beds project as mitigation for the 33 bypass and the Ohio Di- during the tour vision of Natural Resources - Division of Mineral Re- sources Management designed the treatment system and managed the con- struction process. The total cost for the project was $408,753. We would like to thank Kaabe Shaw, ODNR-DMRM Environmental Specialist II, for presenting the information about the Big 4 project during the tour. INTERESTED IN The next stop on the tour highlighted a more positive VOLUNTEEERING attribute of the Monday Creek Watershed. The Greendale WITH MCRP? Wetland, located off SR 595, is comprised of 11 acres of open E-MAIL KELLY AT

water created by a beaver dam and 12 acres of riparian KELLY@RURALACTION. ephemeral pools and button bush swamp surrounded by bot- ORG tomland hardwood and pine forest. A decommissioned rail- OR

road grade traverses the center of the wetland complex and is CALL 740-394-2047, used as a hiking trail. The trail provides a unique opportunity OR COME VISIT US IN to walk through the middle of the wetland and view the flora OUR OFFICE AT

and fauna from both sides. We would like to thank Cheryl 115 WEST MAIN STREET Coon, Wayne National Forest Biologist, for coming out and IN NEW STRAITSVILLE! describing work that has been done to remove invasive plants from the wetland.

After lunch the tour wrapped up with a stop at the Jobs doser. This AMD treatment system resembles a large silo and uses calcium oxide to raise the pH of the water. The tipping bucket style doser is gravity fed and operates using water stored in a supply pond. Once the bucket fills, it tips, mixing a small amount of cal- cium oxide with the water then discharg- ing it back into the stream. Approxi- VIBI is the Vegetation Index of Biotic Integrity, mately 200 – 1000 pounds per day of which is used by Ohio EPA to classify wetlands. Greendale scores a 60 which puts the wetland calcium oxide is dispensed from the in the highest category possible (category 3)! doser. The Jobs Hollow doser was com- pleted in 2004 by Tuson Inc. for a cost of $319,066. The doser was retrofitted with the newest “tipping bucket tech- nology” April 5, 2012. The doser must be refilled with quicklime several times a year for an additional annual cost of $15,000—$20,000. Funding sources for this project were ODNR-MRM, OSM-ACSI, and OEPA-319 for design and ODNR- DMRM and OSM-ACSI for construction. The doser is very effective and reduces the amount of acid entering into Monday Creek by 692 lbs/day and reduces the dissolved metal load by 97 lbs/day!

The Monday Creek Restoration Project would like to thank all the tour attendees for a great day in the field. Make sure to join MCRP in the fall of 2013 for the next annual tour and learn something new about the watershed!

Upcoming Events - Mark Your Calendars!

Wednesday, March 13th - Wildlife Diversity Conference · Columbus, OH. For more info visit http://ohiodnr.com/tabid/19517/Default.aspx Sunday, April 14th - Stream Clean-up with UCM · Meet At the MCRP office for a clean-up effort in the watershed. Call 740-394-2047 for more information! Thursday, March 28th - Monday Creek Friends Meeting · “Otters in Ohio”, Potluck! 6-8pm at the MCRP office. Saturday, April 20th - Rural Action Adventure Auction · More information to come Friday, April 12th-14th - Logan Ag Days Event · Held at the Hocking County Fair Grounds Sunday. June 9th - Canoe Float past the mouth of Monday Creek ·11am-3pm Lunch will be provided. Call 740-394-2047 for more information.

Monday Creek SUPPORT ACID MINE DRAINAGE CLEAN–UP Restoration JOIN MONDAY CREEK RESTORATION PROJECT TODAY! Project  $15 Student P.O. Box 129 115 West Main Street New Straitsville, OH 43766

Name: ______We all live Address: ______downstream Phone: (______)______-______E-mail: ______ Cut out, complete and mail this form, with your check made out to MCRP

How Can Kroger’s Community WISH LIST Rewards Donate an item from YOU Help? Enroll at www.kroger.com to our wish list: choose  New or used office chairs RURAL ACTION  Document sized picture frames to display our awards Kroger donates to us  A new computer for our office each time you use  Craft supplies for Summer Camp your Plus Card.  Printer paper or office supplies

Volunteer Become a Monday Creek Restoration Pro- ject always needs more hands! Monday Creek One of our best volun- From helping with office work Restoration teers, Weston Johnson, to trail maintenance or working helped out at this in the community garden, there Project year’s Chinese Auction is something for everyone! Call Member by making free, fresh us today to find out about our popcorn for attendees. next volunteer opportunity. Today! Thanks Weston!

Monday Creek Restoration Project is a Program of Rural Action A non-profit organization working on social, economic, and environmental issues throughout Appalachian Ohio