Joshua Rinehimer hiking the trails at PA DCNR’s World’s End State Park in Sullivan County.

Josh grew up in northeast Pennsylvania spending most of his youth in the woods helping his father, who worked as a logger.  This is where he developed his passion for environmental conservation.  He is married to his wife Elizabeth, has two sons, Elias and Silas, and expecting a third child in December, and they all love the outdoors as much as he does.  When not working, Josh likes to spend most of his time with his family, but he also likes to go hunting, hiking, camping, fishing, and playing guitar.

“Being an Environmental Geoscience concentration, I really hope to see how the physical geology of the mining impacted region effects the way abandoned mine drainage (AMD) flows through the Wyoming Valley and other coalfield communities.”  “I have learned about the effects of AMD in class, but now I get to see and help in the reclamation of these polluted areas under the leadership and guidance of the EPCAMR Staff and Mr. Hughes.”  “It means a lot to me, not only as a student, but also as a local Pennsylvanian, the work that EPCAMR has been doing in this area for more than two decades.”  “The steps we take today ensure a better, cleaner Earth for my children’s generation are what it’s all about.” emphasized Josh.

Robert E. Hughes, stated, “We’re glad to bring Josh on for the next 6 weeks to help us out over the Summer with many of our projects and programs. It never seems to slow down anymore in the Office and around the region with the amount of work, technical assistance, grant management, project management, and environmental education programs that we undertake within the communities that we serve. It’s always nice to have a few extra hands around to pick up on the work that we are doing and for him as an Intern to acquire the necessary skills and training in the field of watershed restoration, wildlife and aquatic habitat improvement, and environmental education and outreach. He’s come at a very busy time of the year, so I assured him that daily he will be going from one end of the environmental spectrum to the other helping us to juggle and manage the dozens of projects that we have going on throughout the Coalfields of Northeastern and Northcentral PA.”

“Josh has already helped to process iron oxide, sample iron oxide precipitate in the bottom of Earth Conservancy’s Askam AMD Maelstrom Oxidizer Treatment system that we monitor and maintain for them, assisted with a bi-county AMD and Abandoned Mine Lands tour of undergraduate and graduate Landscape Architecture students from the University of Oregon, inspected our Solomon Creek Trout Stream Dam Removal and Habitat Improvement Construction Project in Ashley Borough, Luzerne County, and is actively taking an online training and certification course in Aquatic Organism Passage (AOP) that most EPCAMR Staff have already through the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC), in partnership with Trout Unlimited, under the leadership of Phil Thomas, Habitat Coordinator for the PA Coldwater Habitat Restoration Program. The NAACC has developed common protocols and training for assessing road-stream crossings (culverts and bridges) and developed a regional database for this field data. The information collected will be used to identify high priority bridges and culverts for upgrade and replacement. Next week, he’ll be planting Waterboxxes and conducting a cleanup in Plainsville with incoming Wilkes University students as a service learning project,  tie-dying t-shirts with Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math (STEM) students in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District’s STEM Youth Camp for 1ST through 5th grade at Kistler Elementary in Wilkes-Barre, PA, taking Hazleton area-youth fishing at Lake Irena in Hazleton, PA, and assisting with another AMD Tour with Penn-State Master Watershed Stewards at our Office. I’d say he’s going to be learning lots about EPCAMR and how much work we REALLY do around the region in the next few weeks. I think he’s up for the challenge!” laughed, Robert.

The post EPCAMR Welcomes Joshua Rinehimer, Bloomsburg University Senior as a 6-week Summer Watershed Outreach Intern appeared first on epcamr.org.

Cait Dickson, EPCAMR Watershed Outreach Intern, sitting on a rock in a flooded stripping pit in the Jim Thorpe Area.

When not in college, she enjoys hiking and backpacking. She has completed the Loyalsock Trail, as well as sections of the Appalachian Trail, and trails in the Catskills, and Adirondacks. Her favorite day hike is the Falls Trail at Ricketts Glen State Park.

Cait helped EPCAMR out earlier in the Summer for a day prior to starting her official internship in the Fall 2014 at the Nockley’s Stream Restoration Project in Hanover Township, PA where we had to physically place several tons of R4 sized stone into areas of the tributary to Solomon Creek where rock energy dissipators were necessary to prevent further streambank erosion and sedimentation from occurring during storm events and heavy rainfalls.

Caitlyn Dickson, looking for some sunlight in the canopy at the Mocanaqua AMD Tunnel while EPCAMR was sampling for flow and chemistry.

Cait has already been water quality monitoring at the Espy Run AMD Treatment Wetlands on the Earth Conservancy property that EPCAMR monitors continuously and the Mocanaqua AMD Tunnel, that discharges from the historic West End Colliery, behind the Mocanaqua Borough Sewer Treatment Authority, in Mocanaqua.

Caitlyn Dickson, Elizabeth Rosser, and Gabby Zawacki out in Hazle Brook Creek removing beaver dams around several discharge locations.

Just last week, she was with EPCAMR’s other two Staff removing 4 beaver dams that were backing up AMD in the Hazle Creek watershed that drains to the Black Creek and then on to the Upper Lehigh River. She was up to her chest in waders removing several large beaver dams in order for EPCAMR and the Weatherly Borough Planning Commission, one of our partners in Carbon County to be able to continuously monitor the flow measurements of the discharges throughout the year. This is the second time we’ve been back to this location in the last several years.

Today, Cait is out with the other two Staff re-marking additional sections of the Sugar Notch Yellow Trail System on Earth Conservancy property in Sugar Notch, PA. “There is no doubt in my mind that over the course of the Fall, Cait will be exposed to many facets of the environment and ecology that surrounds mine drainage and our abandoned mine lands that are having a direct impact on the biology, ecology, and aquatic and wildlife populations within the Coalfields.” Seeing that she likes to hike and spend time outdoors, and the Summer and Fall being the busiest times of the year for the EPCAMR Staff, I’m sure that she’s going to enjoy her stay  with EPCAMR.” stated Robert Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director.

“Cait is going to try and work with Bloomsburg University to see if they would test some of our AMD samples in their aqueous geochemistry labs to give us a better representative sample of the water quality parameters that we are measuring in the field with field test kits. Often times, we can’t afford to send water samples to the labs unless their is funding available to perform such tasks. AMD Hach Field Test Kits are the most commonly used testing kit in the field by the EPCAMR Staff. We are hoping that the Universities that we work with to sponsor interns will work with us and allow us to give the student interns an opportunity to apply their lab skills and use of the on-campus facilities to support our non-profit efforts in the Region, since they have the resources and equipment that we obviously can’t afford, unless they are grant funded.”  hoped Robert.

Welcome Cait! We’re sure that you will do just fine!

The post Cait Dickson, Bloomsburg, PA Joins EPCAMR for the Fall as a Watershed Outreach Intern from Bloomsburg University appeared first on epcamr.org.