On October 29th, 2025 almost a dozen eighth and ninth graders accompanied by their teacher Larry Foulk joined Gunpowder Riverkeeper® at the Sparks Bank Nature Center for an impromptu interactive talk and stream walk while their upperclassmen peers took the PSATs and other high-stakes tests. They met with Riverkeeper Theaux Le Gardeur on his way out the door for a brief talk about history of the organization and the Sparks Bank building before filing in to make connections between their curricula and the work being done by Gunpowder RIVERKEEPER® staffers Brady Bayne and Joe Ottomano.
Students learned about a little about the monitoring that we do at Gunpowder RIVERKEEPER including both bacterial monitoring and tidal monitoring. These lessons were connected to their own science classes where the students have been doing their own monitoring by learning about macroinvertebrates and how they can indicate stream health. We emphasized how there are so many different methods to determine a healthy stream whether its physiochemical parameters, bacteria, or macroinvertebrates.
Many of the students were international including several students from Rwanda who were surprised by the name dropping of their local Lake Kivu, which is protected in part by its local waterkeeper, and how the world is connected by this Waterkeeper Alliance just as we are connected by our waterways. The student from Virginia was less impressed that we knew about the Potomac and James Riverkeepers.
Since students were learning about osmosis in their Biology classes, it was a good practical application to learn how our wader wash stations contain invasive Didymo by destroying the diatom in a saltwater bath. Where salt goes: water follows, sucking the water out of the single-celled organisms to dehydrate them dead and prevent their spread.
The invasive species topic transitioned to how the zebra mussels in our reservoirs (not the muscles in our bodies!) were deposited originally from foreign waters in boat ballast. They passed around bivalve shells for those who didn’t realize that creatures used to live within them. Talk quickly changed to other edible sea critters, like oysters, so we were able to make connections to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and how often the oyster population is able to filter the water: down from seven times a day historically to once every seven days in modern times.
Blue Crabs of course are also a perennial favorite, so we were able to flex into their habitat needs to discuss Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) and tap into the students’ budding knowledge of plant growth and photosynthesis. Some students were newly maddened about mud to hear about how sediment pollution affects the SAV beds and therefore the crabs they like to eat and fish they like to fish for.
Our last topic of discussion revolved around the concept of trash and where it goes after we put it in the garbage bin in our house and take it out to the curb. Most everyone knew that their trash went to the landfill however, many were unaware that much of their trash was left to be buried and forgotten. This lead us into our discussion about the Days Cove Landfill and how they want to dump their “trash juice” into the nearby body of water. With three landfills within 5 miles many students agreed that it’s not very fair for the surrounding communities.
Finally, the students shared their future plans. Brady and Joe took the opportunity to put in a good word for the service option, and many of the students shared that they saw themselves headed into the fields of public service, medicine, or law.
Everyone also took advantage of the pleasant weather to walk the TCB trail to spend a few quiet minutes with the birds, river and trees. Many of the students are active users of the trail for their cross country practice or horseback trail-riding. No one turned down the chance to add a Gunpowder RIVERKEEPER® sticker to their collection.
Finally, before they piled on the bus for the ride home and a brief photo-op, we sat in the meadow for a few minutes to discuss next steps: how will these students and their peers prepare for the future they’d described earlier. One of these steps was to stay informed: students received information about how they could join the YCI: Youth Climate Institute to continue their education about the climate and add “Climate Ambassador” to their already impressive resumes.
If you’d like more information about protecting the local environment for the future generations or you’d like to get involved, stop by the Sparks Bank Nature Center while our “Open” flag is up: most Tuesdays-Saturdays 9-4 or send us an email at gunpowderriverkeeper@gmail.com