Field Visits and Hydrologic Fracturing Simulation: WYSE Day 3

Tuesday Orange Group Delegates left the GMU campus of a variety of field visits:  to learn about sustainable farming and veterinary medicine at Frying Pan Farms, a behind the scenes tour of the National Aquarium, to learn about conservation management of a number of rare species at the Smithsonian Conservation Biological Institute, and to learn about conservation education, water quality monitoring and advocacy with the Friends of the Rappahannock.

I was assigned to go with the students headed to Fredericksburg to meet with the Friends of the Rappahannock.  We were welcomed by Bryan Hofman, the Programs Manager, and he told us about the work of FOR and his professional path to his position there.

Here Shreya is providing Bryan and his staff with a copy of her CD that is a musical celebration of the world's rivers.

Learning more about the Rappahannock and the work FOR conducts throughout the river's watershed.

During the breakout sessions, the WYSE Director, Richard Friesner, lead a discussion on the value of plants and guided Delegates through some plant ID exercises using book descriptions, line drawings and information of plant ranges, and Delegates also experimented using computer apps using photo recognition software.  

Down by the river,  Delegates cycled through two stations.  One had the students learn about river-dwelling organisms and how they could be used to grade water quality int he river.  Here, the Delegates are keying out a variety of preserved river critters and putting them into categories based on their sensitivity to clean water.

Once that was done, the Delegates were encourage to put on some waders and collect live specimens in the Rappahannock River to try to use what they learned to gauge the water quality in the river based on what they could catch with a variety of collection nets

Once river bottom gravel was collected, Delegates sorted through it to find animals living in the river.

In the other station, Delegates learned about how to measure dissolved oxygen and river turbidity as other indicators of river health.

I bet you thought you were through with Chemistry for the summer, but no!

 I think we all had a great time and learned a lot with the Friends of the Rappahannock!

Later that day, and after some pre-reading assignments about hydrologic fracturing, or "fracking", the Delegates participated in a mock public meeting regarding tracking in the George Washington National Forest.  This is actually a real live on ongoing debate in which the US Forest Service needs to decide if it will be allowed.  No official decision has been made by the USFS yet, so the topic was very real and ever-present.  

In the simulation, Delegates were randomly assigned roles of the US Forest Service (the deciders), the local water authority, Chesapeake Energy, the Virginia Petroleum Council, Rockingham County Board of Supervisors, Trout Unlimited, Agusta County Board of Supervisors, the Environmental Defense Fund, property owners (for and against), the White House, and Politico (members of the press).  Each group of students had to make arguments to represent their roles' interest and then debate each others position to convince the USFS representatives to rule in their favor.

Here, the three USFS representatives listen to each group's statement of opinion. 

Chesapeake Energy makes an impassioned plea for opening the George Washington National Forest to fracking.

Surrounded by differing factions, the USFS weighs the pros and cons of the arguments and discussion out loud.

    
In the end, the USFS agreed that fracking should not be allowed in the GWNF until such time as more research shows that it can occur safely but held out hope that fracking could be done in the future.

We had a post-simulation discussion, and then followed with our group meeting about Wednesday's events at National Geographic, the Capitol, and more meetings and speakers.  Another long day!