WILLIAMSPORT - Twelve students are spending their summers as interns with the Lycoming College Clean Water Institute. Five major projects are being conducted under the direction of Mel Zimmerman, professor of biology and CWI director, and Dr. Peter Petokas, CWI research associate.
Projects include surveys of healthy crayfish and eastern hellbender populations in northcentral Pennsylvania streams, evaluations of trout populations in unassessed waters of the Pine Creek and Lycoming Creek watersheds, water quality monitoring of the lower West Branch Susquehanna River, analysis of the impact and recovery of fish populations in two streams affected by September 2011 flooding in the Loyalsock Creek watershed, and the monitoring of water quality before and after best management practices are established on farms in the White Deer Hole Creek watershed.
Student participants include seniors Michelle Herman, Leslie Kester, Quentin Reinford, Fred Rogers, Clark Thomspon, Shannon Lesher and Laura Walter; juniors Chelsea Brewer, Chelsea Taylor and Cory Trego; and sophomores Lynette Dooley and Laura Shelmire.
The internships were made possible through grants totaling more than $30,000 and support from the Degenstein Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group, the Pine Creek Preservation Association, the Lycoming County Conservation District and the Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for Environmental Studies.
