Solar Youth Trip to the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association
Young stewards from Solar Youth, the New Haven-based youth empowerment program, traveled to the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association for a river adventure. First stop: the Wallace dam for an overview of the river and its ecology.
The group then went to the QRWA headquarters and met with staff-volunteer Ginny Chirsky and other volunteers ready to take them out on the river. They paddled onto Hanover Pond to explore the ecosystem. They saw herons, egrets, hawks and other birds as well as turtles and insects.They met to discuss human impacts on the watershed and how they could be good stewards of the environment.
Next, they put on mud boots and waders and headed to a stream feeding into the pond to search for insects and larvae and other creatures
The day concluded with a discussion of how different organisms indicate the health of the stream. They brought specimens back to the lab for a closer look.
