Application information is also available for the second round of the Bay Partner Communities Program, which ends March 15. This is a 30-page handbook for teachers and parents who want to help students learn about aquatic ecosystems. Funded by a grant from Delmarva Power and written by naturalists at Echo Hill Outdoor School, the book's focus is on projects designed to involve children in active learning experiences. It includes hands-on educational opportunities that can be adapted for any level or need, including water quality testing, urban planning, an estuary food chain mural, ecosystem modeling, playing with sea level, watershed pen pals and more. It also features an Internet guide to the Chesapeake Bay and an extensive resource list.
Discounts are available for larger orders.
The use of vegetated buffer strips along stream corridors to reduce nutrient runoff has grown greatly over the past several years, and their increasing use may be made more effective through recent research by the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. Its staff completed a study to catalog available information on plant uptake rates of nitrogen and phosphorus to provide a guide for the efficient design of streamside buffer strips. A literature review was conducted in the disciplines of forestry, agriculture and horticulture. This information will help alleviate the problem of nitrogen and phosphorus uptake information about various plants not being readily available to those individuals responsible for designing functional buffer zones. The EPA's Office of Water has recently published this document to provide information to state and local water resource professionals and watershed groups about federal monies that might be available to fund a variety of watershed protection projects.