A Publication of Rural Action UP THE CREEK THE MONDAY CREEK NEWSLETTER Monday Creek Restoration Project Volume 11 • Number 1 • Summer 2005 Tree planting on a Sunday Creek Coal Company reclamation site on April 24, 2004. Pictured are Boy Scouts from Troop 60 (Nelsonville), youth from New Straitsville, and Betsy Gosnell. Photo by Raina Ooten, 2004. Volunteering with Monday Creek by Betsy Gosnell Five years ago my husband and I “AMD and Art”. I didn’t know what mining, so I began attending meetings: moved to Southeast Ohio from Greater that was, but it sounded like fun and public meetings, where I met Office Cleveland so he could attend school at being new, I wanted to get involved. of Surface Mining (OSM) Interns Hocking College. We settled into the That was my first volunteer experience and Volunteers In Service To America small town of Murray City and the first with Monday Creek and from that mo- (VISTA); town council meetings where thing we noticed was the run-down ment on I was hooked! I met the Mayor, Volunteer Fire De- train depot across from our house. The I learned why the water was orange partment Chief, and staff from Ohio second thing we noticed was the orange and that AMD stood for acid mine Department of Natural Resources, creek running next to the depot. drainage, and that is what caused the Wayne National Forest and Environ- The following spring, I saw a sign water discoloration and prevented any mental Protection Agency. I learned in the Post Office for volunteers for an thing from living in it. about Monday Creek and what was archaeological dig in the park across I wanted to learn more about water- being done to clean up the water and from our house for some project called sheds and the damage caused by coal what still needed to be done. I learned about seeps, subsidences and gob piles; IN THIS EDITION OF UP THE CREEK I learned about limestone channels, Volunteering with MCRP ..............................1 Former VISTA says thanks ............................5 watershed management and dosers. From the Coordinator's Desk......................2 Feasibility report up for review...................6 I went on trash clean-ups, canoe Partnerships plant red oaks.........................3 Announcements/Events ...............................7 floats, birding hikes and watershed New Straitsville community forest ............4 Looking Back....................................................8 Continued on page 3 2 Up The Creek Partners Adelmann Lumber American Electric Power Athens, Hocking, and Perry Soil & Water Mike Steinmaus Conservation Districts and canoe at Burr Athens, Hocking, and Perry County oak Reservoir. Commissioners Photo by Raina Hocking College: National Environmental Training Cooperative Ooten, 2004 Buckingham Coal Company Monday Creek Residents USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service ODNR Div. of Mineral Resources Management ODNR Division of Soil & Water Conservation ODNR Division of Wildlife From the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Ohio University - Geography & Geology Dept. Coordinator’s Desk Ohio University - The Institute of Local by Mike Steinmaus, Monday Creek Watershed Coordinator Government Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD) As I write the commentary, I’m on vacation visiting in my Rural Action, Inc. home state of Iowa. In reflecting on the newsletter theme of US Army Corps of Engineers US EPA volunteering, I thought about how the concept of volun- US Forest Service teering time and talents has been a part of my life and the US Geological Survey lives of those around me as I grew up. I remember my Dad US Office of Surface Mining volunteering as the Assistant Cub Scoutmaster (although Editors: Tim Braun, Mike Steinmaus I know he wanted to be involved with camping and hik- Page Design & type: Mary Lautzenheiser ing with older boys). I think of the delicious pies my Mom Photos: Tim Braun, Raina Ooten, baked and the food she served at church bazaars (even Richard Pfeiffer, Mike Steinmaus though she had been on her feet in the grocery store all week). I think of my uncle and fellow farmers who would Contributors: Andrew Bashaw leave their own crops to harvest the grain of a neighbor who Betsy Gosnell was hospitalized. I learned from these examples that the Mark Kessinger value of our lives is not based on what we make in salaries, Mary Lautzenheiser our prestigious titles or our material possessions but rather Raina Ooten from what we give for the well being of our community. Phil Sammons Mike Steinmaus I remember coming home for lunch on a cold January day while attending grade school. My Mom had the TV turned on and a new, young President named Kennedy was saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” A simple idea that many who The Monday Creek Restoration Project is a heard it took to heart—the concept of volunteering. collaborative venture dedicated to reclaiming the Monday Creek watershed. For more infor- This newsletter tells the stories of some of the many mation contact: volunteers who have enhanced Monday Creek Restora- MCRP, PO Box 129, New Straitsville, OH 43766 tion Project. These volunteers have come from various Phone: 740-394-2047 backgrounds, including scientists, biologists, teachers, Rural Action, PO Box 157, Trimble, OH 45782 students and homemakers. In their own way, each has made Phone: 740-767-4938 MCRP website: www.mondaycreek.org a difference — some have changed the water quality of the Listserv: [email protected] creek, making it possible for aquatic life to return; some Email: [email protected]. have changed the lives of young people, who have experi- enced the interconnected web of life; others have changed This publication was financed through a grant communities, building an understanding that in working from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency together we can build a better world. and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, under the provisions of Section 319(h) of the Clean Water Act. It is published bian- My thanks to all volunteers! nually by Rural Action, our sponsoring agency (www.ruralaction.org). Printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper with soy inks. Summer 2005 3 VOLUNTEERING Continued from page 1 Partnerships help plant tours. I met a lot of people and made new friends. And the best part of all red oaks in reclamation project was we all believed in the same thing: By Phil Sammon that the water needed to be cleaned Wayne National Forest up so life could return to Monday The Monday Creek Restoration Proj- Volunteer, organized volunteers from Creek. I think Margaret Mead said it ect and Wayne National Forest staff Perry County high schools and the best: “Never doubt that a small group put the finishing touches on a long- watershed group to work with Forest of thoughtful concerned citizens can standing partnership project April 24, Service personnel in the effort. change the world. Indeed it is the only by planting more than 1,200 trees in More than two dozen people came thing that ever has.” Jobs Hollow near McCuneville, Ohio, together during the cloudy mid-morn- Through my interactions with on the northern edge of the Forest. ing, dibble bars in hand, to accomplish Monday Creek, I learned about a The Wayne’s Watershed Team won the plantings across three to four acres partner group called Rural Action and a Regional Foresters award for the wa- on two different sites. Working in became a VISTA volunteer with them. tershed partnership project in 2004. teams and individually, Forest Service I first worked in welfare to work, help- The planting started off as a Cen- personnel and the MCRP volunteers ing low-income folks gain skills for tennial Challenge Project Fund pro- set out to plant a borrow area and a gob employment. I then became a VISTA posal just two months ago to plant a pile as part of an abandoned mine lands Leader and acted as a liaison between Centennial Forest with the Monday project. The borrow area had previously the staff and VISTAs. I worked with Creek Restoration Project and school been cleared of vegetation, and the top- Rural Action’s other programs too: students. But when fund money went soil had been used to reclaim parts of Earth Day with the Environmental to other projects, the Monday Creek the abandoned mine area. The work- Learning Program; Landowner’s Con- group stepped forward to handle the ers planted the seedlings, mostly red ference with the Forestry Program; an whole project and coordinate the vol- oak with some white pine, in about 3 herb harvest at the National Center for unteers to complete the tree planting. hours, moving quickly across the land- the Preservation of Medicinal Herbs Mitch Farley from the Ohio De- scape to beat the approaching rains. and planned the Earth Ball and An- partment of Natural Resources worked The MCRP and the Forest’s Wa- nual Dinner. I took the minutes at with Gary Willison, Wayne National tershed Team have plans to plant numerous meetings and coordinated Forest’s Watershed Group team leader other project areas in the future during the welfare to work staff in all office and MCRP’s Mike Steinmaus to get seasonally appropriate times as part of needs. I attended volunteer events and the trees. Tim Braun, MCRP VISTA their overall partnership plan. county fairs, local festivals and career days at local schools to recruit and edu- cate about VISTA service and to talk Volunteer paints blaze about the work Rural Action and its during a Buckeye Trail programs were doing. maintenance day. Throughout it all, I continued to Photo by Richard Pfeiffer, be actively involved with the Friends 2005. of Monday Creek- going to meetings, cleaning up trash with the Boy Scouts and getting our public group to adopt a stretch of the Buckeye Trail which passes through our watershed.