Finger Lakes Group
Winter 2007 Newsletter
Steuben Water Day Festival 2007
by Jim Trondsen
It was a very good day. The Steuben County Sierra Club Committee joined forces with the Steuben County Environmental Management Council to create Steuben Water Day, which took place June 3, 2007, at Champlain Beach on the southern shore of Keuka Lake. The purpose of the event was to highlight our beautiful waterways and the importance of water for living well. Over 20 exhibitors participated, three musical groups performed, and several people signed up for Sierra membership. The organizing committee is delighted with the event and brimming with new ideas we can use next year.
There were hands-on activities for all ages. Rich Hurley, our new Chair for Finger Lakes Group, had a very popular water quality testing activity involving collection of aquatic organisms, and testing of water properties. An entire science class from Campbell-Savona School and many students from Bradford Central School and Hammondsport Central School participated in the testing and received laboratory credit. By the way, the waters of Keuka rated "good" based on the biotic index calculated from the species collected. The soil erosion experiment by the Earth Science class was a good way to get one's hands dirty. And anglers of all ages enjoyed Trout Unlimited Cohocton Chapter's fly-fishing instruction.
For the youngsters, Rich and Kevin Hurley developed a Sierra coloring book incorporating drawings of aquatic plants and animals made by students at Bradford Central School. The coloring book was field-tested by kids and distributed as a souvenir of Water Day. The Chemung River Trails group had sailboats for kids to assemble and decorate.
Local author Lee Welles signed copies of her new environmental-inspired novel, "Way of Water", the latest of the Gaia Girls series. Other popular exhibits included the D.E.C. Bath Fish Hatchery trout exhibit, the Trout Unlimited stream improvement display, and the Keuka Lake Association's "Enviroscape".
Musical entertainment was provided by the Irish/ folk group Kilrush, by the Wayland-Cohocton High School Jazz Band, and by Dan Hill of the Cayuga Nation on native flute. The Keuka Maid dinner boat hosted lectures by Keuka Lake historian Kirk House and served food for festivalgoers. And the Hammondsport Central School Spanish Club offered very imaginative cookies and cold drinks.
It was particularly heartening to see widespread activism in water quality. There was a lot of interaction and networking among the exhibitors themselves, as they all found themselves on common ground at Water Day. In addition to the environmental organizations (Environmental Management Council, Cayuga Nation Environmental Task Force, Trout Unlimited, Sierra), there were landowners (Keuka Lake Association), arts (musical groups, author Lee Welles, poet Mike Czarnecki), government agencies (N.Y.S.D.E.C., Southern Tier Regional Planning, Steuben County Soil and Water District, Steuben County Sheriff's Department, Steuben Department of Public Works, Upper Susquehanna Coalition), school districts (Bradford, Hammondsport, Campbell-Savona) and others (Keuka Maid, League of Women Voters, Hammondsport Historical Society, Finger Lakes Progressives, Hammondsport Library, Peaceweavers, Chemung River Trails Partnership).
Financial support for Water Day came from Sierra Club National, Finger Lakes Progressives, and generous individual Sierrans. An unexpected contributor was Water Sentinels, a clean water initiative of Sierra Club National, who found out about our event and sent boxes of attractive T-shirts. Rich Hurley rewarded his water quality assistants and participants with these shirts.
The organizing committee consisted of Rachel Treichler, Susanne Brown, Pat Brown, Gene Stolfi, Rich Hurley, Lee Hersh, Janet Thigpen, and Jim Trondsen.