District offers youth activities

Staff report

CORTLAND

The Trumbull Soil and Water Conservation District has activities available that young people can do to fill their community-service obligation at school while getting outdoors.

The SWCD and HandsOn Volunteer Network of the Valley will perform storm-drain marking, stream monitoring and stream/community cleanups in the city of Girard and village of McDonald.

The program is open to children age 12 to 17. An orientation for the program is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 26 at the Trumbull County Agriculture and Family Education Center, 520 W. Main St., Cortland.

After the orientation, participants will conduct the storm-drain marking and stream monitoring for the rest of the week.

The program also will be done in the Kinsman area Aug. 9-11.

The storm-drain program involves placing markers on drains to remind people not to dump improper things down them.

The stream-monitoring program, called Stream Watch, involves observing local aquatic habitats.

Participants collect macroinvertebrates — small organisms without a backbone that can be seen with the naked eye — in order to learn about the health of the stream.

For more information, call 330-637-2056, ext. 111.