2012 CREST Annual Report - Alabama A&M University

Annual Report: 1036600helped to understand the connection between people, landscape and environment for the sustainable use and management of natural resources. Birmingham Water Works Board Young Water Ambassadors Program, Lake Purdy Field Day, 21 June 2012Daryl Lawson, Colmore Christian, William Stone, Heather Howell, Allison BohlmanWe continued our annual Lake Purdy Field Day with the BWWB Young Water Ambassadors. The BWWB Young Water Ambassadors program is a summer program for inner city minority students to acquire hands-on, practical environmental science experiences. The Lake Purdy Field Day is an all-day event aimed at teaching the YWA students about a variety of ecology-related fields including lake and stream ecology, water quality assessments and importance of clean water for all aspects of an ecosystem; wildlife ecology; forest recreation; wildland fire management, etc. This year, hosted around 150 high school students and they circulated through the following activities: Forest Recreation (Colmore Christian), Stream Ecology (Allison Bohlman), Lake Ecology (Heather Howell), Capturing Fish for Research (William Stone), Wildland Fire (Daryl Lawson, Vermar Wilson, Matt Breedwell). As usual, students were excited to see Mr. Lawson discuss the use of fire as a means of forest management, and Dr. Stone use an electricity to stun fish.Birmingham Water Works Board Young Water Ambassadors Program, Alabama A&M University On-campus All Day Educational Visit, 21 July 2012Daryl Lawson, Colmore Christian, William Stone, Heather Howell, Allison BohlmanWe have hosted BWWA YWA students at the AAMU campus both for educational and for recruitment purposes. This year we hosted ~150 students. Students spent the day at AAMU learning about GIS and Remote Sensing, wildlife, stream ecology, genetic variations and DNA extraction, and forest ecology. Students toured through classrooms and working labs to see hands-on research, then ate lunch on campus.Lake Purdy / Cahaba River ProjectDaryl Lawson, Colmore Christian, William Stone, Heather Howell, Allison BohlmanThe purpose of this project is to initiate research on the 8000-acre Lake Purdy watershed owned by the Birmingham Water Works Board and provide real world experience for AAMU students. Funded by SRS Civil Rights Capacity Grant (11-CA-11330124-099). Several undergraduate students participated in this project and enjoyed the hands-on practical experience it gave them. This project promises to enhance the Forestry program at AAMU further. All students said that having younger people speak about their experiences with this program (and others) would be an excellent addition to the AAMU Forestry Program recruiting process. Below are some students' reflections on their experience with this program.>> Dexter Strother (Senior): Mr. Stother said that the real life experience was fun and beneficial. He felt that he was actually learning things that had been taught in class through practical Page 53 of 73