My Town

Outside in Sylvania: What's new

A few exciting environmental things to report in Sylvania that happened last week/this week:

1. Partners for Clean Streams, the organization that hosted the 16th Annual Clean Your Streams project last month, (click here to read the story I wrote about the group of Lourdes University students who helped with the event...), released a few statistics on the event:

• 1,175 people participated
• The amount of trash removed from local waterways: 18,882 pounds
• 274 tires were removed and recycled

 

2. Last Thursday, I was also out at Camp Miakonda, learning about how the space will soon be used as an ecological learning center. Blade photographer Jetta Fraser and I got a complete tour of the space and had the opportunity to see many interesting things (including getting to walk out in the middle of a lake that was recently drained).

Here are a few photos from that interview:

For now, Lake Sawyer has been drained/is in the process of being emptied. A road was built so that trucks can move around. Photo by: Kelly McLendon

Walking through the mud. This was definitely the type of story where it was important to wear rain boots! Photo by: Kelly McLendon

Some of the trees haven't even started to change color yet! Photo by: Kelly McLendon

 

3. Oct. 10 was the start of construction on Smith Ditch at Sylvania's Sylvan Prairie Park. I've been following this project for a few weeks and it will include construction work for stream restoration on the ditch.

According to a press release sent out by The Olander Park System's Erika Buri, “D & K Excavating won the bid for the construction phase of the project, which was funded with a $185,000 award from the Ohio EPA’s 2009 319(h) Nonpoint Source grant program.” The project also includes restoring “almost 3,000 linear feet of stream in Sylvan Prairie Park.”

The Lucas County Engineers' Office helped design plans for the construction work. One important thing about this project is that it will help with storm water storage. The channel will have a higher capacity for storage with the new construction.

Over the next few weeks, I'll continue to follow this and update my blog with the news.

Northview students design interpretive park signs

So, let me admit it right up front: I'm a little bit of an environmental geek. I get excited when I hear about stormwater restoration projects. My day is instantly made better when I hear that people are working on cleaning up the environment and keeping the area parks clean. Furthermore, I was thrilled to hear that students from Sylvania's Northview High School were given the opportunity to work on designing interpretive signs for some of the area parks.

Sometimes I see those signs in parks (the ones that tell about what types of animals, plants etc. live in the area) and I always wonder "who made those?" For a few of the signs in Sylvania, now I have an answer. 

The signs were designed last year, by a group of Northview seniors, who were in Tami Blue's interactive media class. Ms. Blue said the class teaches things like photo-editing, computer illustration, video techniques, web design and more.

“My students are required to complete a senior project in an area related to the class. Three students volunteered to work on the signs and one of them was actually in environmental science at the time, so he was a good match,” she said.

Creating the signs also required the students to learn about environmental subjects.

“They learned a lot about the subjects their signs were on and of course, used skills that we have learned in this real world project,” Ms. Blue said.

(An example of one of the signs (just a sample), courtesy of Tami Blue):

The awesome students who worked on the project: 

-Alexa Rickard designed the Maumee River sign and assisted with Harroun Park and Olander Park signs

-Darren Butler designed the Olander Park sign

-Vince DeBaca designed the Harroun Park sign

The signs will be installed at 5 locations in the area “probably starting the week after next,” Kari Gerwin, stormwater planner for the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, said. “We are planning an official unveiling of one of the signs at Harroun Park for October 4, with educational activities revolving around wetlands restoration.”