Earth Day 2022 brought chilly weather, but volunteers converged on three New England District project sites anyway to work on improvement projects and to attend events that promoted environmental stewardship.
West Hill Dam, Buffumville Lake/Hodges Village Dam and the Cape Cod Canal all hosted Earth Day events.
West Hill Dam did something a little different this year. Instead of hosting a clean up day, the team held a nature presentation with Cub Scout Pack 150 of Northbridge, Massachusetts.
“We viewed the animal mounts at the office, held snakeskin and turtle shells and played a game of ‘What Am I?’” said Park Ranger Viola Bramel.
After some time inside it was time to go outside with animal tracking cards and salamander viewing ranger containers to try their luck finding any tracks. According to Bramel, their efforts paid off. “We found worms, mayflies, and deer, dog and other animal tracks,” she said.
According to Bramel the Cub Scouts also tasted dandelions and clover and learned skills to help them listen to bluebirds, blue jays, titmice and other birds. The group also discovered skunk cabbage, which was not a popular smell with the young scouts. Despite the stinky vegetation discovery, some exciting things happened on the way back.
“An immature red tail hawk landed above us in a tree, less than 15 feet above our heads and stayed the entire time,” said Bramel.
The group also rescued a mayfly from the pond, dried its wings and released it.
Park Ranger Angela Erskine, Buffumville Lake/Hodges Village Dam, held a small clean up at the projects and then she and Park Ranger James Higgins attended the town of Charlton’s Earth Day event, April 30.
“We were able to make 136 public water safety contacts where we discussed details of the project offices, handed out brochures and water safety materials to all in attendance and re-initiated some community contacts post COVID,” she said. "The booth was very well received and well attended by the public.”
Park Ranger Elisa Carey headed up the Cape Cod Canal team’s annual Canal Clean up with their partners, AmeriCorps Cape Cod, April 23. Eight locations along 14 miles of shoreline were cleaned up during the four-hour event. Over 175 volunteers removed 377 pounds of trash from the Canal. This year marked 21 years of the USACE/AmeriCorps partnership for this event.
“Volunteers had the option of pre-registering and choosing a location online or arriving the day of to sign up to participate in the day’s events,” said Carey. “Each registration site had activities and refreshments provided by local non-profits that centered around an Earth Day theme.”
One of the favorite activities at the registration sites was “Litter Bingo.”
“Event participants were given a reusable BINGO card with different items of litter on it,” explained Carey. “If you brought back the card with a BINGO on it you received a prize. Prizes were also given to the volunteers who collected the most trash at each site.”
This article appeared in the May issue of the Yankee Engineer: https://www.nae.usace.army.mil/Portals/74/docs/YankeeEngineer/2022/April2022.pdf
| Date Taken: | 04.28.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.21.2022 12:54 |
| Story ID: | 435646 |
| Location: | CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS, US |
| Web Views: | 22 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, New England District project host Earth Day activities, by AnnMarie Harvie, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
