Nature Up North

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Community Mentor: Ava Ehrhard

Agency and Placement Location: On-Campus

Mission: According to their website," Nature Up North is a community-based organization based at St. Lawrence University whose mission is to foster a deeper sense of appreciation for, and connection to, the North Country environment and in doing so to create a bioregionally literate community that is committed to protecting the wild things and wild places that define this place we call home. The goal of Nature Up North is to use technology to encourage and enhance outdoor experiential learning. In a world increasingly dominated by technology and defined by a growing sense of apathy toward the natural world, Nature Up North seeks to build an environmental community in northern New York using the technological tools with which people are most familiar. Using web-based technology, Nature Up North enables sharing of experiences and observations in nature through science, art, photography or writing. We seek to foster connections between the North Country landscape, the people who inhabit it, and the inextricable connections between the two."  

Projects:

CBL students placed with Nature Up North (NUN) in spring ’24 will help with NUN’s citizen science project, MOW the Grasse. This project aims to create regular water testing along the Grasse River for agricultural pollutants, e-coli, and other hazards to human and environmental health. This project has existed for a few years with mixed success. Our goal this spring is to evaluate our capacity to test the Grasse River, identify community organizations that could help maintain this project along the river, and engage the public directly with water monitoring trainings and outreach with results from water testing. Students with NUN will:

  1. Work directly with NUN’s project manager 2-3 hours each
  2. Help identify relevant community organizations with the capacity for water monitoring along the Grasse River
  3. Help plan a long-term community engagement strategy
  4. Learn about water monitoring equipment and best practices
  5. Take part in water monitoring training with the potential to help train community members
  6. Take part in water testing in the spring once weather allows

Please direct general inquiries to Nature Up North.

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