By: Sydney Calton
Serving with the Monongahela National Forest, Bartow Watershed
Before joining AFNHA AmeriCorps, when I thought of West Virginia’s freshwater systems I imagined trout, forested streams, and crayfish – there is so much more to them than just that! While I have plenty of snorkeling experience, I have never been able to immerse myself in such diverse freshwater systems until I came to work in the Monongahela National Forest. Snorkeling allows you to experience the stream in a completely unique way; fish are accustomed to predators approaching from above similar to how a kingfisher or heron would hunt so when you join them in the water to swim alongside them, they are less skittish.
Mountain red belly dace in Pocahontas County, seen at a snorkel event with Marlinton 4th graders.
One half of my service year activities is outreach coordination. Sometimes I distribute educational materials to schools, camps and around our public land for students and visitors to enjoy! These materials include interpretive signs, posters, activity books, worksheets, and virtual content like watershed websites and videos. For outreach events, we love to take people snorkeling at easy to access and biodiverse locations! Groups we have hosted include school fieldtrips, summer camps, girl scout troops, out-of-state visitors and recently, special events with local state parks like Cass Scenic Railroad State Park! These events are always a blast, especially whenever someone who has never been snorkeling before gets to try this new experience.
The other half of my service year is conservation, this includes a wide range of experiences from salamander surveys to water sampling and lots of things in-between. Outreach and conservation go hand in hand, the more we can educate each other about conservation needs, the better off our wildlife and lands will be. An effort I have been concentrating on that I wasn’t expecting for my service year is recording, editing, and producing videos for a YouTube channel that I created for this position. Recording underwater footage is a challenge in itself, but when you add in the factor of potentially capturing endangered candy darters on film it gets all the more exciting! I have had the pleasure of getting footage of a wide variety of species and it has inspired me to continue to capture wildlife through a lens other than my eyes! Being able to share footage like this with the public is special because some people my not have a chance to see a hellbender or candy darter in person.
Big sandy crayfish, seen while snorkeling in Pocahontas County.
Hellbender seen in Pocahontas County while snorkeling!
Snorkeling is the best way to experience a crystal-clear stream. You get to swim eye-to-eye with dace and trout as they dart around you! It is inexpensive to purchase a mask and snorkel, and it is not as technically challenging as an activity like scuba diving; anyone can snorkel!
Snorkeling event with 4th graders!
Here is a link to a short video with fish highlights from the Monongahela National Forest!
