NM Project WET Watersheds and Climate Change Workshop at Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park

Seventeen educators met on April 20 to learn more about the Rio Grande watershed, explore Project WET’s Healthy Water, Healthy People Curriculum, and take a tour of the wastewater facility for Las Cruces.

The Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park hosted the workshop, sponsored by the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). Presenters included Chris Canavan, head of the SW Area Surface Water Bureau of NMED, Dr. Kathy Whiteman, Executive Director of the Gila Conservation Education Center in Silver City, and Barbara Garrity, Executive Director of the Environmental Education Association of New Mexico.

Participants learned about the effect of climate change on our mountain sources of water, issues related to local water quality, and how to develop a hypothesis. The group engaged in a simulation of macroinvertebrate collection (before going out and doing the real thing) using beads and other objects, which involved using the protocols for the dip nets, sorting and using the water quality indexing system. That afternoon the group toured the Las Cruces wastewater treatment plant.


This information was originally published in EE Connections for Spring 2012 [PDF].