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By Martin Johnson
Rappahannock News Writer
On Friday, May 11 bus loads of seventh graders, parents and teachers met on the banks of the Robinson River in Madison County at the Pathways Retreat and Education Center to catch bugs, plant trees and climb down into a pit to study layers of soil first hand.
Greeted by landowner and Center Director Marci Smith, the students were encouraged to work together to gain an understanding and an appreciation for the many ways that soil, water, plants and animals interact where a river runs through the land.
The students, from Wakefield Country Day School in Rappahannock County, Culpeper Middle School, William H. Wetsel Middle School, Prospect Heights Middle School, St. Luke’s Lutheran, and Culpeper Christian School had come to take part in a Conservation Field Day organized and presented by the Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Wading into the river, teams collected bottomdwelling insects and other macro-invertebrates in a kick seine. Under the able instruction of Dereck Amos and Ashley Black of the CSWCD, with the assistance of Nancy Halgren, a citizen volunteer, they learned how to correlate the numbers and types of macro-invertebrates with their ability to tolerate pollution in the water, a useful tool in the evaluation of a river’s health. Along the way they learned the names and natural history of many of the common inhabitants of the river bottom.
Jim Sawyer soil scientist with NRCS had dug a fourfoot-deep pit to give students a close look at how soil is formed and accumulates on a river’s
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