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Make
a Splash with Project WET in the L'Anguille River Watershed
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The
week of April 10-16, 2005 marked National
Environmental Education Week across America. To help recognize
this national event, area schools were invited to attend a local
water festival held in Caldwell, Arkansas. Make a Splash in the
L'Anguille with Project WET was a national day of water education.
It was celebrated across the United States with water festivals,
which are educational, fun, and interactive water celebrations where
students explore a variety of water-related topics. This festival
is an annual event sponsored nationwide by Project
WET (Water Education for Teachers), Nestles Waters, and locally
by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). The
past four years the event has been held in Central Arkansas but
this year the event came to the L'Anguille River Watershed.
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| "This
year we decided to take the event on the road and focus on areas that
have an impaired waterbody," said Arkansas Project WET Coordinator
Philip Osborne. "The L'Anguille watershed has been deemed impaired
by both the US EPA and ADEQ. This was a perfect opportunity to combine
efforts of ADEQ's Watershed Awareness Campaign and reaching out to
schools that don't get many opportunities like this." |
| On Thursday,
April 14, fourth graders from Forrest Hills Elementary and Central
Elementary in Forrest City attended the day-long festival held at
the Caldwell City Park. Presenters from the Arkansas Department of
Environmental Quality, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Arkansas
Natural Heritage Commission, Arkansas State Parks, Arkansas Forestry
Commission, and St. Francis County Conservation District all came
together to present educational, hands-on, water-related activities
to the 125 youth and teachers in attendance. |
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Students
rotated through 11 educational stations. Stations included the AGFC
Mobile Aquarium featuring native freshwater fish common in the L'Anguille
River Watershed, an interactive stream table that showed how streambank
changes can affect upstream and downstream flow patterns, and a groundwater
model that showed how water travels below the surface and can be pumped
up for municipal and agricultural uses. The kids' favorite exhibits
were the live animal displays featuring a baby alligator, snakes,
salamanders, frogs, and toads common to the area. |
| The event was
a huge success. All in attendance had a fun and educational time.
Students and teachers left the event with an abundance of educational
materials for the classroom and a wealth of information about the
importance of protecting the water resources in the L'Anguille River
Watershed. |
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