Youth Watershed Connections
What is the YWC?
The Youth Watershed Connections is an initiative of the Youth Action Board (YAB). Their goal is to develop the Youth Guide to Deckers Creek as the first youth-led, online, watershed guide connected to our interactive map. The project is meant to be replicated on the Youth Watershed Connections’s website by any organization in the state who wishes to enable young people in their communities to undertake their own youth guide projects.
What is YWC making?
YAB has created points that users can click on to see photographs and summaries of areas of interest identified by YAB members. These plotted points on the interactive map highlight areas that YAB members have identified as important in the watershed: recreational areas, historic points of interest, and contamination issues. The sites chosen by YAB span the 64-square-mile watershed in Monongalia and Preston Counties to include the FODC Outdoor Learning Park, the Rehe Wetland, acid mine drainage passive treatment points, and the Richard Mine discharge.
What will this accomplish?
In expanding the online watershed guide, YAB will work with other watershed groups across the state to inform them on how they can get involved with YWC. With a little hard work, we hope to see YWC be used across the state with the potential to expand across Appalachia. YAB is committed to making this application available to any watershed group with youth involvement and also to engaging more youth in the Morgantown area in conservation and watershed preservation.
