Event Information: Chesapeake Bay Watershed Forum, November 3, Shepherdstown, WV
At the beginning of this month I went to the Chesapeake Watershed Forum with my ALLARM colleagues. Our goal was to lead a workshop and for us to attend sessions throughout the day.
It was my first time attending this event, and I am very happy that I was able to go. I attended two presentations in the morning and helped out with ALLARM’s workshop, “Water Quality Monitoring 101” in the afternoon. The first presentation I went to was “A Planet of Plastics”, and it gave me critical information on how plastic affects our waterways, and the serious consequences plastic has on health of waterways and on the living beings who rely on water. In addition, we listened to what we can do to reduce the amount of plastic we use. The other presentation I went to was “Elevating Conversations for Emerging Women Leaders”, where I heard some words of wisdom from women leaders in the Chesapeake Bay area about networking and how it takes time to develop your networking skills. An important piece of advice I received was to network in pairs if you’re beginning to network and introduce your network buddy to the other individual.
The workshop was a little daunting; we had a whole three hours reserved to teach forum attendees about water quality monitoring. We began with some of my colleagues introducing ALLARM and the workshop. When it was my time to teach the attendees how to visually assess a stream, the group maneuvered the slippery, muddy slopes that led to the Potomac River. I had the task of talking about some indicators of a healthy stream, such as in-stream fish cover, macroinvertebrate habitat, and canopy cover. The attendees were very inquisitive and attentive, and I was excited that what I prepared was received well.
Workshop attendees walking down to the Potomac River.