Fall 2018 YARE (Youth Aquatic Resource Education Workshop) at Otsego Lake, Glimmerglass State Park
I’m happy to report that, despite the crazy cold weather, this fall’s workshop was a tremendous success. For our November 10th workshop, we had all 20 of our participants show! In fact, they were all present so we could start 10 minutes early (never happens). Students and faculty attended from SUNY Morrisville, SUNY Cobleskill, SUNY ESF, Onondaga Community College, SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown Graduate Program. NY AFS member Kate Abbott (formerly SUNY ESF) and SUNY Oneonta Professor Dan Stich assisted me with providing training, instruction and curriculum for teaching kids about fishing basics, stream and lake ecology, and fish & aquatic macroinvertebrate identification. The workshop was a great opportunity for student attendees to meet and network with fisheries professionals and educators. Glimmerglass State Park on beautiful Otsego Lake near Cooperstown provided an excellent location for the workshop, prompting several participants to suggest we hold future YARE workshops at the park, which we may very well do. However, right now, plans are already in the works for having our Fall 2019 workshop at Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, New York. Stay tuned for that and for a possible announcement of a Spring 2019 YARE Workshop!!!
Photo credits: Madeline Simpson, Student Conservation Association NYS Parks Americorps
-Tom Hughes, Youth Aquatic Education Committee
Tagged Under: YARE