Cacapon Institute - From the Cacapon to the Potomac to the Chesapeake Bay, we protect rivers and watersheds using science and education. 

As Fact Finders, we conduct research to gain insight into watershed issues of local and regional importance.

As Educators,  we work to create a future where a stream without a buffer looks as out of place as a smoker in a conference room looks today.  To foster that vision, our environmental education efforts focus on students first and, through them, the larger community.

As Problem Solvers, we seek innovative solutions to environmental problems.

Welcome!

Stream Scholars Summer Camp runs from July 20-24, 2009.  Download an application.

5/27/09.  CI's eSchool is a winner!  Last month we entered the Potomac Highlands Watershed School part of our website in the Adobe-TechSoup Show Your Impact design contest, and we won the Environmental Impact: Other Media category.  Take a look at our entry and all the other deserving winners at the Show Your Impact website.

Environmental Forums The 2009 Stream Cleaner Environmental Forum,from March 9 to April 10, 2009 is over.  For over four weeks students joined classmates and students from other Chesapeake Bay watershed schools in exploring one of the most complex environmental problems ever to confront the United States - saving the Chesapeake Bay from decades of pollution.  Take a look by clicking on the phone in the High School.  Participating schools have a chance to receive technical and financial support to design and implement their own real-world best management practice projects, as well as get out in the field to study restoration projects - like this erosion control project (VA) and this WV tree planting and this tree planting to reduce non point pollution on a WV school campus and this tour of restoration projects in DC (with partner Casey Trees) and this Virginia tree planting (with partner Pure Water Forum) and this green roof installation on a WV high school - as demonstrations of watershed stewardship and as long-term living classrooms.  30 classes in four states (PA, VA, MD, WV) and DC have signed up, which means we have full enrollment. Look at this Google Map to see where they are.   Click here to learn more about eForums or sign up to participate. Download a 2009 Stream Cleaner Environmental Forum flyer (57 KB PDF) here. Oh Deer! 2008 ran from October 20 to November 26, 2008.  Participating classes sought a consensus approach to deer population management that strikes an acceptable balance between people, deer, and the environment.  *To help students visualize the problems caused by too many deer, we created a short Flash slide show about deer impacts on our forested lands.

 

April 13, 2009.  Benthic Macroinvertebrate activities debut in the Potomac Highlands watershed School.  Go to any classroom in the eSchool, then click on the BMI Poster to enter the benthic portal.  For a taste of the stunning new illustrations by Jennifer Gillies, click on the photo at left to met the "Cast of Characters."

Deer exclusion fencing experiment is testing a relatively low cost method to protect riparian forest plantings from severe damage from deer browsing.

*Cacapon Institute (CI) receives $48,683 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program.   The project is titled: “Failure is Not an Option: Investigating a Cost-Effective Approach to Reducing Deer Damage in Reforestation Programs.”  Read press release here. 

Potomac Headwaters Leaders of Watersheds (PHLOW)

Cacapon Institute - From the Cacapon to the Potomac to the Chesapeake Bay, we protect rivers and watersheds using science and education.

Website  made possible by funding from The Norcross Wildlife Foundation,  the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Virginia Environmental Endowment, NOAA-BWET, USEPA, The MARPAT Foundation, and our generous members.