Llywellyn “Lyw” Westrick, a current Senior Environmental Studies undergraduate student with a minor in Geography at King’s College, hailing from Catonsville, MD, joined the EPCAMR team in September for a Fall Work Study Internship as a Watershed Outreach & Education Specialist. After majoring in Athletic Training during his freshman year, he came to a realization that environmental work was his stronger passion. He switched majors during the Fall of his sophomore year and immediately felt a strong level of comfortability in the environmental studies program. There, he is learning the knowledge and skills that will locate him employment in the environmental field. With the assistance of Program Director Dr. Mangan, Regional Director of DEP in Northeast PA and former Environmental Law Professor Michael Bedrin, as well as EPCAMR Executive Director Robert Hughes, was able to find an internship that provides valuable field experience pertaining to his interest in Watershed Management and Assessment.
Llywellyn Westrick standing in an old fire tower in Adirondack Mountains, Newcomb, New York.
Lyw grew up on the west-side of the Baltimore-metro area, spending significant time outdoors playing baseball, soccer, hiking Maryland state parks, as well as periodical sailing/fishing on the Chesapeake Bay. He is one of only two members of his entire family working in the environmental field, the other being his great aunt who is an environmental lawyer out in Washington State. He is the oldest of three siblings, each of whom have an interest in environmental awareness. In his free time, Lyw enjoys hiking, watching live music, attending sporting events, and the occasional skateboard sesh.
“As an environmental studies undergraduate student who has been long concerned with the issue of water quality, I am very excited to learn more about the extent of the problem of eastern Pennsylvania Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) and how that impacts stream ecosystems, drinking water, etc.” Though I have gained foundation on the subject through my collegiate studies, I believe that EPCAMR will provide me with professional, firsthand opportunities to participate in efforts to actively address such issues.”
Robert stated, ” I think Lyw will find that he will have an excellent opportunity over these next few months as we transition from Summer to Fall and Winter activities that there will be enough activities for him to become more familiar with how an organization such as EPCAMR operates, builds community support for projects, seeks funds for grants, educates youth, and builds coalitions with our extensive network of partners across PA in the field of abandoned mine reclamation to help restore our streams impacted by AMD and to support the reclamation and redevelopment of our abandoned mine lands. I am sure that he will do well. On his first day, he has had to clean hundred year old or more mine maps from the former Franklin Brewery that is now the PA DEP Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation’s Warehouse along St. Mary’s Road in Hanover Township, along Solomon Creek, and then came back to the office to seek out donations from local grocery stores for gift cards to support the purchase of supplies and refreshments for the upcoming October 21st, 2017 Centralia Cleanup.”
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