The Southwest Florida Water Management District honored Sandra Haynes, a Dunellon Middle School teacher, for her role in an outstanding school program that focused on water resources education. A total of 27 projects were recognized during the “Partners in Watershed Education Conference” at the Lake Mirror Complex in Lakeland.
Haynes organizes the Promoting Awesome Watershed Stewardship (PAWS) Legacy project, which has given students the opportunity to undertake a variety of water resources education activities. The District has been a supporter of the Legacy Program at Dunnellon Middle School since 2001.
In the past five years, students have monitored the Rainbow and Withlacoochee rivers. Each month they check the levels of dissolved oxygen, pH, alkalinity, and chloride.
The PAWS students have studied the flora and fauna at the District’s Hlpata Tastanaki Preserve and created interpretive materials for kiosks at the site.
They participated in a literacy program where they set out to increase the reading skills of struggling and accomplished readers, and to increase awareness of watershed issues by participating in cascade learning/teaching, with PAWS students becoming teachers for non-PAWS students at Dunnellon Middle School.
PAWS students also created materials to encourage maintenance of septic systems and possible connection to central sewage systems by homeowners. Such materials have been placed in the Dunnellon City Hall and other public locations and have been distributed at watershed education events such as Dunnellon Boomtown Days and Marion Countys Springs Festival.
Recently, PAWS students proposed an idea for a law protecting Floridas springsheds to Rep. Larry Cretul.
To select the awardees, District staff reviewed school projects funded through the Splash! mini-grant program and grants applied for by community members, local governments and non-profit groups through the community education grant program. District-sponsored programs that use volunteers to educate others about water conservation were also considered.
Many of the District’s grant projects focus on various aspects of all four of the District’s areas of responsibility water supply, water quality, natural systems protection and flood protection.
Projects in Marion County receive funding from the District’s Withlacoochee River Basin Board, which includes portions of Marion, Pasco, Sumter, Hernando, Citrus and Levy counties.