McDill Pond- I broke the Dam...

 

MCDILL POND- BEFORE THE BREACH

Mcdill Pond, the area of the Plover River that holds a pond created by a dam in Whiting,WI, has been a staple of the Stevens Point Area. For years, the maintenance of the Lake District has caused both praise and ire over the manmade lake throughout the years. However, the latest struggle has caused nothing more than conflict.



MCDILL POND- AFTER THE BREACH

It wasn't but a year ago when the Highway HH Dam showed signs of wear. After an analysis by engineers, the dam was labeled broken due to an unusual construction flaw. The dam, which needed a more solid base, formed a leak in the core structure. McDill currently will be fixed in April, 2013. The construction project was just approved by the DNR and received a grant paying for roughly 200,000 of the 600,000 dollar price-tag. The rest if the cost will be picked up by the "Lake District," Portage County, and the city of Stevens Point.

See This article in the Stevens Point Journal to learn more

McDill Pond and it's issues create a moral hazard for water control experiments. Though the lake has been known to cultivate and support several bird species, the constant changing of the area is surely causing stress on all species that utilize the area for eating, living, and protection. If you look at the two different pictures, the changes are poignant and provide different biome for species to exist.


Sometimes, the economical implication of land owners wanting to keep the status quo (a lake where one never was) might not add up when the biodiversity of an area is at risk.

EE: The first rule of EE is to talk about EE

I love the environment. I love it so much. It took a long time for me to have any understanding about how the environment is affected by me. That's not mentioning, of course, the impact of humanity on the environment. I don't know if doing this journal online will do anything to save the enviroment compared to a paper journal. However, I think this mode of journaling will be benficial for me as a student who is trying to focus on technology integration.

In this journal about environmental education, I plan on incorporating my love of nature, my outdoor experiences, and way I see that humanity can fix it's current cycle of resource depletion and destruction. My rules for my environmental education journal are:

1. To include at least one picture, video, and/or soundbyte addressing an environmental topic.
2. Incorporate at least seven posts of my own experiences in the environment.
3. Discuss in every post one idea that can be used in my career as a makeshift environmental educator.
4. Create at least five posts talking about the how the environment affected History and create an outline for a lesson plan.


Following these rules, I give to you my thoughts, feelings, and ideas concerning environmental education!


To finish, a video a watched today on food waste!