The HWMO team traveled down the road from our office to Parker School for a "Make A Difference Day" event. Our Board Treasurer, Carolyn Stewart, and Executive Director, Elizabeth Pickett, teamed up to give presentations to a class of high school students regarding watershed and fire issues, respectively. Afterwards, even given a long day of field work the students endured, the students were enthusiastic enough to join us for an outdoor activity. Pablo Beimler and Tom Loomis set up diaramas that demonstrated direct/indirect point source pollution. We had students simulate pollution events ranging from leaky septic tanks to agricultural runoff to post-fire erosion. The students not only learned a great deal in such a short period of time, they had quite a blast pouring cocoa powder and Kool-aid ("pollutants") into the model and watching the unfortunate aftermath. If only it were as easy to start our watersheds from scratch the way we did by simply pouring the "pollutants" out of the "sea" and giving the dioramas a nice rinse.
Banner photo: Parker School students crowd around the diorama to see how post-fire erosion can impact coral reefs.