New signs will mark the Tinkers Creek watershed because of a $4,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Marking a watershed’s boundary is an effective way to educate residents and visitors about local water resources and the need to protect them, the EPA said.
The grant will be used by a grass-roots group, the Tinkers Creek Watershed Partners, to place educational signs along roadways in six communities in Summit, Portage, Cuyahoga and Geauga counties.
The signs are part of a larger educational effort that will include exhibits at area events, Web pages and fact sheets.
Tinkers Creek is the largest tributary of the Cuyahoga River. It is 30 miles long, draining 96.4 square miles in 24 communities in the four counties.
The grant was one of 13 Ohio EPA environmental education awards totaling $50,000. Such grants are given twice a year.
Otterbein University’s Department of Education got a $1,522 grant to support a summer institute for teachers in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
The grant will fund Reading the Earth: The Language of Nature for 20 to 30 teachers from kindergarten through high school. The teachers will spend five days at the park’s Environmental Education Center in Boston Township, where they will explore the park with naturalists and study classical environmental writers.
A website will allow participants to share their writings and teaching activities throughout the 2012-13 school year.
