West Hill Dam in Uxbridge, Massachusetts hosted 55 children for their Junior Ranger Week program. Junior Ranger Week, a week of hands-on activities that teaches children about the environment and environmental stewardship, was so popular at West Hill, they held two sessions. The first week, held July 15-19, 2019 had 31 candidates participate. The second week, July 22-26, 2019 had 24 children come to the program.
“Everyone graduated from the program," said Park Ranger Viola Bramel and program leader of 27 years. “Most were Level 1 candidates, but we did have some who were working on Level 2.”
Activities the children participated in were: cooking in solar ovens; designing rubber-band power boats and sailboats; trail map reading; sampling flavors and using plant identification keys (field guides) to identify what they were consuming from plants and trees to include root beer, wild grape and sassafras; Catch and Release of fish and aquatic invertebrates; reviewing a water quality index of the species they collected to determine water quality; dam tours; radio reports back to Reservoir Control from the in-house Ranger Station at West Hill Dam and life jacket boat races. On the last day, graduates were treated to a graduation ceremony with patches and a pot luck picnic donated by parents.