The 2012 AWWA YCC Crew & Dustin Johnson, AWWA Technical Director
What do you get when you combine a group of hard working, willing teenagers with free waterfront site designs…just ask lake front property owners in Acton, Maine and Wakefield, NH. The Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance (AWWA) Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) program completed its 7th full season this year with amazing results. The AWWA YCC provided free labor to 20 properties in need of erosion control this summer. The crew, which was made up of primarily new recruits this year, worked day in and day out for 7 weeks installing 125 Best Management Practices (BMPs) or landscaped features that help prevent erosion from occurring and sediment and pollution from entering our local lakes.
The 2012 YCC season was a great success in all aspects. With a whole new crew, the veteran crew leaders took to working right away on instilling a sense of importance in the work the crew did this summer. By installing 125 BMPs across 9 waterbodies, the YCC crew is responsible for slowing the flow of polluted runoff to our local lakes and stopping an estimated 59.1 tons of sediment and 49.9 lbs of phosphorus from entering these lakes annually. To emphasize the hard work this crew put in this year, the 125 BMPs installed and the sediment and phosphorus reduction numbers are all records for the YCC program!
In addition to the 20 properties the YCC worked on, the Technical Director met with 41 property owners to discuss erosion issues, suggest ways to fix the problems, and begin signing folks up for the 2013 YCC season. The 41 additional Technical Assistance visits are also a record number for the program. As year seven has come and gone, AWWA has shown that it has no intention of slowing down. With a great portion of the work in 2012 done on NH properties, the NH side of AWWA’s grant funding has been fulfilled. The 2013 season is aimed at completing the requirements for our Maine 319 grant.
The 2012 AWWA YCC season was a great success and could not have been accomplished without the hard work and dedication of the YCC Crew: Brandon Stanton, Ryan Nichols, and Samantha Wooster. These crew members were all first year YCC participants. Helping these rookies learn proper techniques and educate them about water quality were Jordan Shepherd, the Assistant Crew Leader and fourth-year YCC participant; Sam Wilson and Anthony Stanton, the YCC Crew Leaders and seven-year veterans to the YCC program. Thank you to all those you participated and helped make this YCC season a great success. Have a great winter and we look forward to seeing you next summer!
~ Submitted by Dustin Johnson, AWWA Technical Director
PS: Stay tuned….AWWA will launch a new website soon…it will be easier to navigate and full of great information & resources!!!