10/4/04

Engineering Department Teaches Lesson in Environmental Protection
Fourth Graders Learn What They Can Do to Keep the Environment Clean

Fourth-grade students at Holly Ridge Elementary School were visited recently by the Town of Holly Springs Engineering Department for a lesson in protecting the environment. Environmental Specialist Heather Keefer spoke to students about various ways the Town Engineering Department protects the environment, as well as what students can do at home to keep the environment clean.

“Talking to children and getting them interested in protecting the environment at an early age is important because one day these children will grow up; they’ll be the people making and enforcing measures that will continue to protect our environment,” Keefer said.

Keefer explained to students that the Town works with developers before new homes, schools and shopping centers are built to ensure that the environment and natural areas are protected. Also, Keefer said, Town employees work with developers during construction to make certain that environmental protection measures and plans are followed.

Keefer summarized the different environmental rules the Town enforces. Erosion and sedimentation regulations control the amount of sediment (the number one pollutant of water by volume) released into streams. Storm-water rules minimize pollution carried into streams by rainwater. Such pollution can include fertilizer, car motor oil and pet droppings. Buffer and floodplain rules regulate construction in areas that flood during major rain events or that serve as wetlands and filter pollutants before the rainwater empties into streams.

Keefer said that studying insects along creeks and streams is one method that is used to determine the cleanliness of the environment. A high diversity and number of insects indicate a clean stream; a lower diversity and number of insects typically indicates a less clean stream. Students received insect examination kits for collecting and examining insects with parental supervision.

Keefer said that she tried to explain the benefits of protecting the environment by discussing the animals and plants directly affected by pollution. Focusing on streams, she talked about the animals that depend on clean water, from salamanders and fish to squirrels, raccoons and deer. Hands-on displays of bugs and mussels (pictured above) brought the lesson to life, Keefer said.

Keefer also encouraged the students to visit the Engineering Department booth at the rescheduled SeptemberFest on Oct. 30. The booth will be on Main Street in downtown Holly Springs, and it will include a salamander hunt for children and educational materials for adults.

For more information about environmental protection in Holly Springs, contact Keefer at (919) 557-2909.

Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us