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News Updates |
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“preservation and protection for future generations” |
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A donation of $10 or more will allow you to become a member of the Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation. |
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River Sweep 2010
A kitten was dropped at our cleanup area during the River Sweep
On Saturday June 19th volunteers in Columbiana County helped clean up a section of Beaver Creek State Forest. The event was part of River Sweep, a regional effort to cleanup the Ohio River and its tributaries. The local cleanup was organized by the Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation. Other than the main cleanup at the State Forest small groups also did canoe based cleanups along the Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek near Elkton and the North Fork near Negley. Over 20 bags of garbage were collected along with 9 tires. Steve Roloson, of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said that when they first cleaned up that area they needed a dump truck to remove all the trash. The area has improved a lot since then but trash is still dumped there due to the remoteness of the area. As the cleanup was wrapping up someone dropped a small kitten out of an SUV before driving off. The kitten was unharmed and taken to the Alchemy Acres Animal Sanctuary in Salem where it will be put up for adoption. The Land Foundation would like to thank all the volunteers who helped us with the cleanup and ODoT for disposing of the trash.
2010 Tree Planting a Huge Success
Jeff Janosik, the Highlandtown Wildlife Area Manager, shows a child how to plant a tree
Despite cold weather, wind, and a little sleet over 160 volunteers showed up at Hellbender Bluff County Park on Saturday April 17th to plant trees. By the end of the day 5,000 native hardwood trees were planted on over seven acres of reclaimed strip mine land. Volunteers came from a variety of sources including students from Kent State’s East Liverpool campus, local cub scout troops, Huntington Bank employees, and various other interested individuals. Dr. Patrick Angel and Scott Eggerud, from the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI), provided 4,000 trees and helped coordinate the planting. Others that helped direct volunteers during the planting were Dan Bartlett, an Ohio Service Forester, Jed Coldwell, and representatives from the Division of Wildlife Highlandtown Wildlife Area. Over 51 chestnut trees were planted including 17 American chestnuts along with 17 Chinese Chestnuts and 17 hybrid chestnuts. These chestnuts will help to reestablish the chestnut, which was mostly wiped out by a blight from Europe. This event was made possible due to donations of money and services from groups including the LBCLF, ARRI, Columbiana County Park District, Columbiana Federation of Conservation Clubs, ODNR /Highlandtown Wildlife Area, Oxford Mining, Kent State University-East Liverpool, Ohio State University, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Huntington Bank, Wal-Mart, and Giant Eagle. Thanks to all the volunteers and groups that made this event and project possible. We hope to do even more next year so stay tuned.
Kent Students help clean up County Park
The students sitting atop the pile of tires they amassed
A number of students from Kent State University spent their Spring Break doing volunteer work in Columbiana County from March 29th through April 2nd. One of the student groups was tasked with cleaning up Hellbender Bluff County Park. The County Park District had received a $1,650 litter grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources that was written by Greg Aaron, an OSM/VISTA at the Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation. The funds from this grant were used to rent a forty square yard dumpster for the clean up, the recycling of the tires found in the park, the use of a front end loader to transport the trash, and, of course, trash bags. Over the course of the week the Kent students filled the dumpster with all of trash they found on the park grounds. They also made a pile of scrap metal and another pile of approximately 80 tires to be recycled. Y&O Auto Salvage, which is located near the Park, provided a front end loader and rhino utility vehicle to help transport the trash. Thanks to their hard work years of trash were removed in a matter of days.
LBCLF receives Norcross grant
The Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation was awarded $2,300 through a grant from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation. The funds from this grant are being used to upgrade the LBCLF’s computers and purchase new software including ArcGIS. ArcGIS is a powerful tool for mapping and analyzing geographic data. It will help the LBCLF to better manage the land they own or hold in conservation easement. It will also help the LBCLF to prepare plans for projects that would improve the water quality in the Watershed. In addition to computer upgrades several wildflower and tree identification guidebooks were ordered to be used at workshops at the Beaver Creek Wildlife Education Center. This grant has provided the LBCLF with a greater technical capacity and supplies to help increase public awareness about local wildlife.
LBCLF hosts watershed meeting
On Tuesday February 16th the LBCLF hosted a watershed meeting at the Community Action Agency in Lisbon, OH. In attendance at the meeting were representatives of many different organizations that have an interest in protecting the Little Beaver Creek Watershed. Facilitating the meeting were Lisa Butch, the LBCLF’s Watershed Coordinator, and Mark Bergman from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Division of Surface Water. The LBCLF is in the process of getting the final endorsement of its Watershed Action Plan and this meeting was about collecting different ideas to include in the Plan. In order to produce a comprehensive and realistic plan input is needed from everyone from state and local government agencies to industry and farmers. More meetings will be held in the future as the Plan continues to develop and more ideas are incorporated into it.
LBCLF in the running for a Pepsi Refresh Grant
Pepsi is currently running a charity-based advertising campaign where it lets people vote online for the projects they want to see funded. The LBCLF submitted their Hellbender Bluff Reforestation Project and it can now be voted for on Pepsi’s Refresh website. Voting is open until March 31th and you can vote every day. Just go to: http://www.refresheverything.com/HellbenderBluffReforestation
LBCLF helps teachers explore their watershed
On Saturday, January 30th Debby Ludwig and Greg Aaron from the Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation attended an Environmental Education Resource Fair held by the Environmental Education Council of Ohio (EECO). At the Fair local teachers spent the day learning about various activities they can do with their students to teach them about the environment. The event was held at the Mill Creek MetroParks Farm in Canfield, OH. Debby and Greg’s presentation was called “Explore your Watershed” and involved showing teachers several activities taken from the Project WET educational materials. We hope the teachers will use the activities in their classrooms to help kids learn about their watershed and how to protect their water resources.
Bird Feeder construction for Beaver Creek State Park
On Monday, January 18th volunteers from the Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation, Beaver Creek Wildlife Education Center Volunteers Association, and Friends of Beaver Creek State Park met recently to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by building several types of bird feeders and nesting boxes. Items—created with the help of Carter Lumber, Home Depot, and the Lisbon Community Garden group—will be used in a backyard wildlife habitat garden being developed at the Beaver Creek Wildlife Education Center and at the restored Pioneer Village in the Park. The group plans to extend the project in the future by building bat boxes.
Conservation Clubs donate to Reforestation Project
On Tuesday December 15th, 2009 the Columbiana County Federation of Conservation Clubs (CCFCC) gave a donation of $1,000 to the Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation (LBCLF) for a reforestation project at Hellbender Bluff County Park. Two representatives of the LBCLF, OSM/VISTAs Debby Ludwig and Greg Aaron, attended the CCFCC meeting. The trustees of the CCFCC all voted unanimously to support the project. This is the second year they have donated $1,000 towards the project.
Their donation will help fund the reforestation project currently underway at Hellbender Bluff, located in between Lisbon and East Liverpool. Parts of the Park were formerly strip mined which left the soil heavily compacted to point that trees cannot grow there. The Columbiana County Parks District and the LBCLF are working together to reforest the strip mined land by first ripping the soil to loosen it then having volunteers plant trees. The CCFCC’s donation will be used to fund the ripping of the soil and the purchase of the trees. |
