Environmental Progress - Fall 1998

Environmental Awareness Starts With Youth

Trash, Tires and TV -- Scouts Take Them in Stride

Scouts improved their surroundings as they walked.

Once again last April, Boy Scouts and their leaders making the annual Lincoln Trail Hike combined the event with a litter pickup by collecting trash and debris as they walked the 21 mile route between Lincoln's New Salem State Park and Springfield. Thirty volunteers from the Illinois EPA turned out on the cool and soggy day to provide refreshments, rest stops and encouragement at a series of rest stations along the trail that follows as closely as possible the route taken by the young Abe Lincoln between his New Salem home and the larger community of Springfield. Cameramen from a Springfield television station also turned out and footage of the hike was featured on the local news.

The joint hike and cleanup was the fourth year for the venture, though Scouts from throughout Illinois have been making the Lincoln Trail trek for far longer. This year, 1,148 participants walked the route and picked up approximately 10 cubic yards of trash as well as five discarded tires and a substantial amount of aluminum. The Scouts picked up trash as they walked, turned it in at the rest stops and received new pickup bags for the next leg of the hike. Collected trash was disposed of properly, and the aluminum was recycled with proceeds going to the Boy Scouts Council.

In conjunction with the trail cleanup, Cub Scouts of Menard County this year picked up litter on Menard County roads.

1,449 Fourth Graders Attend 1998 Earth Stewardship Day

Environmental awareness stressed

A total of 1,449 Sangamon County fourth grade students attended the Earth Stewardship Day at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield on April 29. Twenty presenters from Illinois EPA manned seven of the 58 stations set up to provide interactive demonstrations about stewardship of natural resources, and another six volunteers provided backup services.

The event was part of the observation of Natural Resources Stewardship Month.

The Illinois EPA presentations dealt with air, land and water issues through games and hands-on activities.

Illinois EPA Makes First Envirothon Appearance

Outdoor environmental competition

For the first time, the Illinois EPA participated in the Illinois Envirothon competition in Monticello, Ill. on May 4 and 5. The event is a national outdoor environmental competition for high school students. Five-member teams compete in the areas of aquatics, forestry, soils, and wildlife, and in a fifth category based on a current environmental issue which changes each year. The 1998 issue was watershed management.

The Illinois EPA assisted the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Natural Resources Conservation Service to create and administer the oral and written watershed management tests during the Envirothon which is coordinated by the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts and a committee representing several soil and water conservation districts, state agencies, and other natural resource organizations.

In Illinois, the Envirothon begins at the district level. District teams sponsored by local soil and water conservation districts advanced to the state level where one team was selected to represent Illinois at the national competition.

The Oakland High School team from Coles County won the state level competition to represent Illinois at the national competition in Michigan at the end of July. For more information on the Illinois Envirothon, contact Laurie Burger with the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts at 217-744-3414.

Junior GEC Volunteers Get New Look at Learning

Earthworms, thunderstorms and damselflies

Splashing through the water searching for macroinvertebrates, recreating a thunderstorm, skipping across a field like a damselfly, playing with and learning the importance of earthworms, or creating a caddisfly case from toilet paper rolls -- what a way to spend a summer's day! To the 1998 Junior Governor's Environmental Corps this past summer, it was all part of the daily grind.

As part of the Illinois EPA's annual Governor's Environmental Corps program, 10 interns participated in a hands-on experience educating local youngsters in environmental activities at summer camps in the Springfield area. During their nine week internship the interns taught approximately 500 youngsters the importance of environmental protection for air, land, and water.

Through games and presentations they learned the importance of conservation, recycling, and pollution problems and indicators. The experience provided a learning opportunity not only for the campers, but also the GEC interns, many of whom got their first teaching opportunity as well as a chance to be a kid again. The camps allowed GEC interns to increase environmental awareness among young people in an exciting and creative way.