Mighty Muskingum River Raft Race

Kristyn Robinson

It’s not too early to start planning your raft for the 2nd annual Mighty Muskingum River Raft Race! This year’s event should be bigger and better than last year. We had eight rafts registered the first year, we are hoping to double that this year. With all the positive feedback we received after last year’s race, we plan to have a really great turnout, both in the water and along the shore.

The race course is on the Muskingum River starting at Indian Acres Boat Ramp in Marietta and finishing at the Harmar Bridge.

This year we have refined the winning raft categories to include; One Man Crew, Two or More, Youth (12-18), and Most Creative. We also encourage the use of recycled and reused materials. This year, winners for each category will receive a cash prize and the first person or team to cross the finish line will also hold the Mighty Muskingum River Raft Race Trophy for the year.

The trophy is a recycled original trophy from the old Jaycees raft race from the 1970’s, donated to us for the first race by Don Nicholson of Devola. The Village of Beverly Waste Water Treatment Plant crew has held the trophy for the past year, winning last year’s race by a good 10 minutes ahead of the competition. They are preparing their vessel, ‘Bringing Up the Rear’ for it’s second voyage. “We’re already planning to make it better this year!” Sam Brooker, told us.

For more information about the race or to print a registration form, please click here.

A Familiar Face in the FLMR Office

Jesse Daubert

For those of you who have not been around our office lately, my name is Jesse Daubert, and I am the new OSM/VISTA that will be taking over for Brenda as her term ends this month. Last summer, I worked for the Friends as a VISTA Summer Associate, and some of you might remember me as the intern who knew very little about building a raft at FLMR's 1st Annual Mighty Muskingum River Raft Race. For those of you who were not there, my highly recycled raft floated about as well as a cinder block. Needless to say, I WILL be back this year with a new raft creation and the added drive to make it down the river without the aid of a tow boat!

To give you a little information about myself, I am originally from Loudonville Ohio, a small village on the Southern edge of Ashland County. This past December, I graduated from Marietta College with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science. Being that I am an avid hunter and angler, all environmental issues are important to me but water resource protection, in particular, is a major passion of mine. While working with the Friends this coming year, I promise to do all I can to make our organization and our water the best in Ohio. I look forward to working with you this year.

Farewell Note From Brenda Lazarus

Brenda Lazarus

As some of you might know, June 25th will be my last day as an AmeriCorps VISTA for the Friends of Lower Muskingum River. As my ending date quickly approaches, I would like to thank everyone involved with the Friends of Lower Muskingum River for being so welcoming and supportive of me this year.

My year with the Friends of Lower Muskingum River has been a wonderful experience. From discovering how to organize a successful 5K race to learning how to write grant proposals, this year has challenged me and helped me grow in many ways.

The support that I've received from FLMR's members this year has also been amazing. By participating in the various events that I've put on this year and by sharing your expertise on certain topics such as how to update FLMR's website (Thank You, Mike!), FLMR's members have demonstrated their dedication to this organization and to helping FLMR staffers do great work.

Once I've completed my term with the Friends of Lower Muskingum River, I will be returning to graduate school at Michigan State University to study agricultural, food and resource economics. As I am getting ready to leave, I am thankful for the opportunity to work with the Friends of Lower Muskingum River. Not only have I gained new skills, but I've also had countless memorable experiences and made many new friends this year. Thanks again!

Stream Team Prepares for Summer Sampling Season

Kristyn Robinson

Now that volunteer monitoring training has wrapped up for the season, FLMR is preparing for the first monitoring field days with our new volunteers. We now have 11 trained volunteers ready to start monitoring streams near where they live.

The volunteers were trained to collect information on overall stream habitat, to identify aquatic insects living in the stream, and to collect some basic water chemistry information such as pH, conductivity (a measurement of the amount of metals in the water), turbidity (a measurement of sediment in the water), water temperature and estimated flow measurements.

We plan to use this screening information to guide future sampling locations and areas that need to be looked at more closely.

“This is going to be incredibly helpful,” said Kristyn Robinson, Watershed Coordinator, “our watershed area is so large, now we will be able to collect data from many more streams than we could before.”

The Stream Team Sampling Days will be taking place July 12-17. We still need additional volunteers in western Noble Co. northern Morgan Co. and southeastern Muskingum Co. to sample in the northern parts of the watershed. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer water monitor for FLMR, please call Kristyn at 374-4170 and we can set up a time and location that you can join us for the Sampling Days.

Economic Benefits of High Quality Streams in Ohio

Brenda Lazarus

The relationship between economic development and the need to protect the environment has often been strained throughout history. Since I've started working in the environmental field, I have often heard people say that environmentalists only care about plants and wildlife at the expense of jobs and a community's economic prosperity. But are improvements in water quality necessarily equal to economic losses in the community? Perhaps no. Brent Sohngen, a professor of environmental economics at Ohio State University, recently did a study examining this issue. The findings of his study found that clean streams in Ohio actually have a positive economic value and improving water quality can increase the economic prosperity of local communities.

According to the study, one way that a community can benefit economically from clean streams is through increased recreation and tourism to the area. Using various data, Dr. Sohngen was able to estimate that every boating and fishing trip in Ohio results in $25 on average being spent within the community. For example, a fisherman coming to the Muskingum River might spend $25 on bait and fuel in Beverly before going out onto the water. While $25 might not sound like a significant amount of money, this spending will result in additional spending in the community due to something economists call the multiplier effect. The multiplier effect states that a significant percentage of each dollar spent in a community will be spent several more times resulting in a larger economic impact than the original dollar spent. For example, when a fisherman spends $25 in a local bait shop in Beverly, the bait shop owner now has $25 that he can go spend on groceries at IGA. From there, the cashier who gets a portion of this money in her paycheck will spend it again and cycle continues. Thus, each dollar spent in the community will benefit the community to a larger degree than that first dollar. According to Dr. Sohngen, the multiplier effect in the case of tourism dollars in Ohio communities is equal to 1.7. Thus the $25 spent on a local fishing trip will actually result in $42 worth of economic gains for the community. Considering that there are approximately 1.7 million fishing and boating trips in Ohio each year, this will equal $71.4 million in economic gains for Ohio or $1231 per mile of stream in Ohio.

So now that we know that streams and rivers in Ohio currently bring significant economic gains to Ohio, what would happen if we improved water quality? The study by Ohio State University found that improvements in water quality would also positively impact the community. For example, improving water quality of local streams could result in more boating and fishing trips or could result in more spending on each individual fishing trip (people may be willing to travel farther to fish in a high quality stream). Either way, the impact would be positive on the local community.

For more information about this topic, please contact Dr. Brent Sohngen, professor of environmental and natural resource economics at The Ohio State University.

Vote for Marilyn Ortt in the "Hero Next Door" Contest

The Friends of Lower Muskingum River’s president, Marilyn Ortt, has been nominated as a finalist in Care2.com and Tom’s of Maine’s “Hero Next Door" contest. If she wins, Marilyn will win $2,500 plus an additional $2,500 for the Friends of Lower Muskingum River. Marilyn has stated that she will donate her half of the money to the Friends of Lower Muskingum River also. The winner of the contest is chosen by the public through an online voting system so we need your vote if Marilyn is going to win. Please click on the link below to vote:
http://www.care2.com/hero-next-door/724/

Marilyn Ortt has been an amazing environmental leader for decades and absolutely deserves to win this contest. In addition to being a founding member of the Friends of Lower Muskingum River, Marilyn has been active in many other environmental projects in southeastern Ohio.

In the 1970’s, she co-founded the Marietta City School Volunteer Outdoor Education program and the Marietta Area Recycling Center, the oldest community drop-off volunteer recycling center in the state. Now in her seventies, Marilyn still spends hours each week at the center and leads children on the nature trail.

In the 1980’s, she joined the Marietta Tree Commission, the group that oversees our urban forest, and co-founded the Marietta Natural History Society, a group that hosts monthly programs on nature-related topics, and is still active in both.

Over the years, she has served on the boards of the Nature Conservancy, Friends of Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge, 4-H Camp Hervida, Rural Action Forest Advisory, and Ohio Invasive Plants Council. She has served on the Mayor's Alternate Transportation Advisory Committee, planning shared use trails, in addition to working on greenspace issues at the state and local levels. For more than fifteen years now, she has planned and volunteered at our county’s annual Hazardous Waste Collection Day, when people can arrange for the safe disposal of such items as household chemicals, batteries, and mercury-containing thermometers. She has helped plan and carry out every community Earth Day celebration.

Please vote for Marilyn Ortt in the “Hero Next Door” contest. If we are going to win, we need your vote!

It takes...

10,855 liters of water to make one pair of jeans.

Goodbye W.P. Snyder!

Brenda Lazarus

On Nov. 20, the W.P. Snyder Jr. left its spot along the Muskingum River to travel to South Point, Ohio to receive a hull replacement. To move the Snyder, the old railroad bridge connecting downtown Marietta to Harmar Village was turned. Check out these pictures taken by John Lee of the departure.