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A Newsletter for Educators and Other Interested People A Newsletter for Educators and Other Interested People A Newsletter for Educators and Other Interested People A Newsletter for Educators and Other Interested People

Summer 2015Summer 2015Summer 2015Summer 2015

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Looking Ahead… June 21— 26 Resource Conservation Workshop at NCSU for high school students. THS student Lau-ren Trader has been chosen to attend. We are in the process of choosing a second student.

June 22—26: YES Camp (Youth Environmental Stewardship) for middle school students. Some spaces remain.

July 13—17 YES Camp (Youth Environmental Stewardship), Week II for campers who attended Week I in 2014

August 25 — 31: Haywood County Fair

Sept. 14—16 Kids in the Creek (Haywood Water-ways)

October 7 — 8: Conservation Field Days for 5th graders; rain dates October 14—15

January 29, 2016: Deadline for Poster, Essay, Slide Show (PowerPoint) and Computer Designed Poster Contests—We All Live in a Watershed

Grandfather Mountain offers

Field Trip Scholarship Fund

Grandfather Mountain was a great fa-vorite of 18 year-old Nathan Pribble of Apex. When Nathan died unexpectedly in 2014, his family chose to honor his memory by making it easier for other students to experience the wonder of Grandfather Mountain. The scholarship amounts will vary based on stated need and number of students. Scholarship recipients may use the funding for all direct expenses related to the trip, in-

cluding travel, admission and meals.

Preference will be given to: NC schools (pre-K through 12th grade); Title I schools or those with demonstrated fi-

nancial need. For other details, go to:

grandfather.com/group-visits/field-

trip-scholarship-fund/

Conservation Teacher

of the Year:

Noal Castater

Warning: If you aren’t crazy about the songs of Hank Williams, Jr., you may not want to talk to Noal Cas-tater at WMS. Huh? Well—it’s simple. When Noal be-gins to describe growing plants without soil (hydroponics) and rais-ing fish (aquaculture), plus garden vegetables and quail and vermicom-posting, that line about living off the land from the song, A Country Boy

can Survive may start to play in your mind and refuse to leave. Except Noal is not exactly a country boy. The WMS Ag teacher pos-sesses 3 degrees and in recent years was awarded an impressive grant from the Pigeon River Fund, among others. He says he enjoys introduc-ing students to self-sustainable life-long skills projects. Marketing the plants they grow is another skill the students learn. They also monitor Richland Creek’s water quality. Students love Noal’s classes, and we loved being able to honor him as the Conservation Teacher of the Year!

Haywood Soil & WaterHaywood Soil & WaterHaywood Soil & WaterHaywood Soil & Water

Conservation DistrictConservation DistrictConservation DistrictConservation District

589 Raccoon Rd., Ste. 203 Waynesville, NC 28786 828.452.2741 ext. 3

Board of SupervisorsBoard of SupervisorsBoard of SupervisorsBoard of Supervisors

Carlyle Ferguson Bill Yarborough James Ferguson

Charles Boyd Robert Cathey

StaffStaffStaffStaff

Leslie Smathers Duane Vanhook Kila Thompson Gail Heathman

Ryan Manning

USDA NRCS USDA NRCS USDA NRCS USDA NRCS

John Ottinger

Grant Funding for your Project

Has an idea for a small environmental project been germinating in your mind this spring?

The NC Association of Soil and Water Con-servation Districts’ Auxiliary offers grants up to $500 for teachers. Teachers Hayley Cox (JES) and Noal Castater (WMS) were both recipients of the grant that helped make their good ideas an exciting reality this year.

Call Gail or email gheathman@haywoodnc.net

to request a copy of the grant, which should be returned to the District by November 10th. It has to be submitted through the District, so no need to worry about an envelope or post-age.

T o see Mena Tanner’s poster is to step into the world of wet-lands. It includes a definition, illustrates varieties of wet-

lands, describes wetland plants and offers a list of some of the things wetlands do for all of us. And then there are the pictures of animals, over a dozen, carefully depicted. One can almost hear the oars gently slapping the water as a girl (Mena, in her imagi-nation?) paddles closer to the animal watching her.

Mena’s poster first won our District poster contest in February, then was chosen over district winners from surrounding counties in the Area 1 contest. The State contest means competing against seven other posters, each representing one of the 8 Area divisions that make up North Carolina’s 96 districts. As a State winner, Mena wins $200 in prize money in addition to the $100 she has already won in the previous contests.

One hundred and seventy-eight Haywood students created posters for the District’s contest this year, and many were very, very

good. Although it’s not easy to convince a disappointed child that all the students are winners when it comes to the deeper knowl-edge they’ve gained by drawing a poster, we all benefit.

While many vulnerable wetland creatures and plants lack voices to express gratitude, their futures may well be brighter thanks to the knowledge teachers help to instill through our contests and the inspiration students will hopefully carry forward as they become adults. So long as the United States is losing approximately 60,000 acres of precious wetlands each year, none of us can af-ford to be complacent.

Hazelwood 3rd Grader’s

Poster Wins State Contest!

Pollinators matter—a lot. And since they are responsible for 1 out of every 3 bites we take, learning to appreciate and help them should be an ongoing proc-ess for everyone. Check out this newest pollinator poster featur-ing carnivorous plants, and email to request yours, free!

The District also has bookmarks and other free resource materials like the poster shown below that will help your students under-stand the importance of taking care of pollinators so they can continue taking care of us. gheathman@haywoodnc.net

Raleigh Bound: Lauren Trader

THS sophomore Lauren Trader has been selected by the District to repre-sent Haywood County at the Resource Conservation Workshop at NCSU in June. Lauren, shown below learning to use a Biltmore stick during YES Camp in 2013 (blue shirt), has also been an Envirothon team member for 3 years. Lauren says, “I can see my perspective on the environment evolving over the course of my association with both En-virothon and YES Camp, broadening my understanding of science and ignit-ing my interest to learn. I see the oppor-tunity to attend the Resource Conserva-tion Workshop as both exciting and life-changing, as I will be able to learn about conservation in a hands-on, real-life environment. It is an honor to be considered as one of Haywood County’s representatives to this state-wide program.” Lauren is the daughter of Dean and Ann Trader. Ann is the lead teacher at Hazel-wood Elementary School.

North Carolina’s State Insect is the

honey bee.

We appreciate each and every teacher who makes the time to incorporate our contests and other programs into an already full schedule. You make our world better.

Bethel Elementary: Lynne Garrett, Maria Miller, Holly Trull,

Diane Williamson

Central Elementary: Janet Frazier

Clyde Elem.: Alison Lipham, Ashley Pace, Amanda Wells

Hazelwood Elem. Elizabeth Rogers, Rosemary Rogers

Junaluska Elementary: Amy Kilgore

Jonathan Valley Elementary: Lara Ernest

Riverbend Elementary: Julia Hernandez

Haywood Christian Academy: Anne Hockenberry

WMS: Patrice McCoy, Amy Tiller, Laurie Bass

Also special parents Davis & Sherry Swaim, Greg & Amy Tucker,

Dan & Wendy Tanner

2015 Winning Essay: Wetlands are Wonderful

I step into the bulrushes. The ground underfoot feels mushy and slimy. I scoop out a handful of mud, cold and unwel-come in my palm. By the look of its dark, almost blackish color, I wonder if it could be 10,000 years old, from the time of saber-toothed tigers! I hear a rustling and my head turns. A deer stands in the brush at the wetland edge, pausing to stare at me mid-drink.

We see so many animals here. Many of them must rely on the water source and special habitat for living and raising their young. Wetlands are even sometimes referred to as “nurseries.” I recall how roughly 50% of endangered animals rely on wetlands for everyday survival, and scan in my head the resources that make up a wetland…soft, wet soil, water-adapted plants, and (of course!) water. I glance at my feet, engulfed in mud, and ponder how this whole place is the result of a small trickle of water be-ing sucked into the marshy ground like a sponge sucking up stray liquid.

A red eft skitters across my foot without realizing that it’s crawling over another being. A decayed stump lies across the water, its broken-down remnants littering the bottom. Watching the deer wander back off into the woods after drinking its fill, I remember how wetlands act as natural filters by absorbing the water while decomposers in the soil clean it of germs and other harmful bacteria. Hearing footsteps, I spin around and come face-to-face with my dad, a geologist.

“I thought we could take a core to see how old this mud really is,” he says, surprising me. He forces the metal tool down into the wet soil, twisting it in as far as he can. After about ten seconds, he pulls it out. The top looks like normal mud, but the deeper layers gradually become denser and darker. The depth and color of this core suggest that this wetland could be thousands of years old, “ he states, “but to know for sure we’d have to have the deepest layer tested.”

“Is it possible that saber-toothed cats walked in that lower mud?!” I ask him.

“It’s probably not that old, but, as I said, we’d have to get it tested to be sure. You never know!” he replies. We hear whistling from a clump of alders. “That sounds like a warbler. I’d better go get your mom,” he says, and starts off down the trail. “Are you coming?” he calls over his shoulder.

“In a minute,” I answer. Gazing out across the wetland again, I realize how truly enchanting it is. If people paid more attention to wetlands – the ultimate wildlife habitats -- they would surely appreciate their wonders too. I head back up the path to get my sister. Though we may not see a saber-toothed tiger today, if we look hard we’ll probably find a few frogs to catch!

By WMS 6th grader Sophie Tanner;

Teacher, Laurie Bass

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2015: The International year of soils Soil, often called the skin of the earth, is far more important to sustaining life than most of us ever imagine. Right now, students and adults can visit the Smithsonian exhibit Dig It! The Secrets of Soil without having to travel to Washington, DC! The exhibit has come to us —well, not too far from us — to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.

• Dates: May 16th — August 16th • 4,000 square feet! • Features: Interactive displays, hands-on models, videos and 54 soil

monoliths from each U.S state, territory & Washington, DC • Also highlighted: NC agriculture, pottery and research projects from the

Museum • Developed in conjunction with the Soil Science Society of America and

Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

Want to know more? Visit https://www.soils.org/discover-soils/dig-it

2016 Contest Theme: We All Live in a Watershed Deadline: Friday, January 29, 2016

Teachers, don’t forget to pencil in our CONTESTS when planning your next school year! Watch for info this fall. • Grades 3, 4 & 5 — Poster Contest

• Grade 6: Essay Contest or Slideshow Contest * Students can enter both!

• Grades 7 & 8: Public Speaking Contest

• Grade 9: Computer Designed Poster Contest

Soil FactoidsSoil FactoidsSoil FactoidsSoil Factoids

Soil helps clean the water we drink and the air we breathe. In the United States, soils treat wastewater for about 25% of the population in rural, suburban and urban areas. Soil is the largest single wastewater treatment plant! The minerals, the nutrients that make up our muscles and bones almost entirely come from soil.—Jerry Glover Many of the antibiotics we use to fight illnesses were derived from soil organisms. Cyclosporine, a drug widely used to prevent transplant patients from rejecting new organs, is derived from a soil fungus. The world population is ex-pected to be 9 billion by 2050. Healthy soil will be vital for pro-viding things that keep people healthy like food, housing, medi-cine, clean water and air. There are more living creatures in a shovelful of rich soil than

there are people on the planet.

When is a planner more than a calendar? When it’s packed with interesting soil facts from around the world, features quotes and has a bit of history included, plus pictures of the Twelve Orders of Soil throughout the cal-endar and oh, yes—there are those footprints that grab your attention. And how can you get your hands on one? Just email Gail at gheathman@haywoodnc.net

Computer Designed Poster Contest Winner THS 9th grader Natalie Swaim

State Envirothon: Girls Rule!

In April, ten bright middle school girls and their advisors traveled to Burlington to compete against 41 other teams in the North Carolina Envirothon. It rained, but then one could say they were used to that—it also rained during the Area 1 Envi-rothon, in March. One could even speculate that rain sharpens the wits of these 2 teams, considering O’

Possum, My Possum (CMS) came in 1st at the Area level and tied with a Madison County team at State for 9th place, achieving the highest score ever by a Haywood team! The Mountaineer Mayflies (WMS), finished 12th while being among only a handful of teams to score 92 in Aquatics, as befitting a team that chose an aquatic insect as part of its name!

O’Possum, My Possum: Cecelia Tucker, Alayna Blaylock, Amy Hunt, Catherine Turvin and Gracie Woods. Advisor: Tim Shepard Mountaineer Mayflies: Virginia Fry, Nina Dove, Mackenzie Flowe, Elizabeth Flowe and Chloe Huffman Advisor: Amy Tiller

Dorgan and Tucker...going where few dare

In February Molly Dorgan (7th, WMS) and Cecelia Tucker (8th, CMS) took on what most of us would emphatically rather NOT do, ever...public speaking. Both girls won 1st place in the District’s speech contest with all 6 competi-tors admired for their courage. Thanks, Amy Tiller and Patrice McCoy!!

Watery word of the day:

pluvial \PLOO-vee-uhl\, adjective:

1. of or pertaining to rain; rainy.

2. Geology. occurring through the action of rain.

Area 1 Envirothon A natural resource encounter

for the next generation

Teachers and students who return year after year to com-pete in the Area Envirothon know that it means…

∗ Fun and camaraderie ∗ Time with natural re-

source professionals ∗ In-depth learning about

water, soil, wildlife, for-estry and current environ-mental issues

∗ Making forever-memories infused with sunshine, laughter and teamwork

Huge thanks go to these terrific teachers who served as advisors to TEN teams!

Tim Shepard (CMS), Amy

Tiller (WMS),Sue Miller

(THS), Leslie Mowitt (HCLC),

Mark Ethridge (HCLC, WMS)