Saturday, September 30, 2006
Schooling in the water
Students from the Roanoke Valley Governor's School spent Friday studying the James River.
Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times
Roanoke Valley Governor's School students launch their canoes into the James River on Friday during a field trip to study the river's effect on the Chesapeake Bay.
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BUCHANAN -- The dozen students paddled along the James River, a floating classroom under, alongside and above them Friday.
Blue herons led the way. Bass darted in the shallows. Crayfish scuttled over pebbles. Sycamores lined the banks, dropping rust-colored leaves in the autumn air.
Leaving their blackboard and laptops behind, the Roanoke Valley Governor's School seniors spent the day on the river to learn about water quality, marine life and pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
"It gives them a chance to see the world from a different perspective," said Allan Thomson, an educator for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which takes 40,000 students and teachers a year on tributary field trips in the six states that make up the bay's watershed.
"A lot of kids don't realize their watershed is connected to the bay," said Pat Calvert, another foundation educator. "For them, the rivers and streams in their community just kind of mysteriously disappear around the bend, but we need to get them thinking about where that water ends up."
Launching canoes from the Buchanan boat ramp, the two guides led the students, two parent chaperones and Cindy Bohland, their biology teacher, for six miles down the river.
The students already were versed in watershed ecology -- they regularly monitor Murray Run near the Governor's School -- but the James River field trip was a chance to be immersed in nature.
"It makes it meaningful and helps them appreciate the importance of preserving it," Bohland said.
Sunlight glinted off the tea-colored water as they paddled along. A chilly breeze came and went. A turtle sunned itself on a rock. A snake did, too.
They paddled by a quarry sending up dust clouds. A train chugged by, then another and another. A few old tires and rusted barrels littered the banks.
They learned the James River has long been damaged by road, farm and railroad runoff, sewage, air pollutants, toxins, sedimentation from sprawl, mercury and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls.
But in recent years, they learned, the river's health has improved as government agencies, citizen groups and the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation try to reduce pollution.
Also, underwater grasses and native oysters are being restored. More livestock is being fenced out of streams. More riparian buffers are being planted. More open spaces are being protected. More sewage treatment plants are being upgraded.
When the students stopped to study water quality and marine invertebrates, they found those sections of the river in good health and teeming with life.
They learned that nutrients, sediment and toxins are the biggest polluters of the bay watershed.
They learned that trees, wetlands, aquatic vegetation and oysters help filter those pollutants.
They took water samples and tested the temperature, acidity, dissolved oxygen, phosphates, nitrates and ammonia.
"It's nice to do hands-on stuff like this," said Meredith Peake, 17, of Roanoke.
"It's a lot more fun than sitting in a classroom, too," added Margaret Kreger, 17, of Roanoke.
The students waded up to their ankles and netted dozens of mayflies, hellgrammites, gilled snails and beetles -- all indicator species that are sensitive to pollution -- as well as a few leeches, which can live in the dirtiest water.
Everyone was excited, even the teacher.
"Look at those hellgrammites -- wow!" Bohland exclaimed. "They're huge!"
One girl picked up a frog, proclaimed it cute and kissed it -- her friends laughed and said "Eeew!"
They paddled across the river's flat expanses, through its gentle rapids, around its bends.
Calvert told the novice canoers to "love the rock" -- or lean into rocks they were going to hit, not lean away -- lest they tip the boat.
They didn't tip. They swatted gnats away. Dragonflies flitted by. Freshwater clam shells lay scattered on the shores.
They took out their canoes in Arcadia. Everyone smiled.
Class was over.
