Stroud Water Research Center
Through her work at the Stroud Center, Bier hopes to better understand how changes in farming practices on land affect the relationship between microbes and the processing of nutrients in streams.
Teachers experienced STEM education in a real-world setting giving them the tools to cultivate the next generation of freshwater stewards.
By creating these teaching tools for other students to learn about freshwater ecosystems, the students developed their own curiosity about their outdoor environment.
Because of flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provided Stroud Water Research Center with a $3 million grant to reduce flooding across the 1,800-acre White Clay Creek watershed by 40 percent.
Students are not only learning how to protect our waterways; they are also conducting their own scientific research or restoring healthy streams — or sometimes both.
Ensign comes to the Stroud Center at a unique point in its history. “Many of the legendary scientists who made the Stroud Center famous are retired, and the next generation of scientists is leading us forward.”
Stroud Water Research Center restored 2.75 acres along two swales that transport rain water into a major tributary of the Brandywine River, which eventually flows downstream to provide drinking water for the city of Wilmington.
Peipoch’s goal is to lead a productive, inclusive, and interdisciplinary research team: “In its very nature, the discipline of ecosystem ecology is a nexus for multiple perspectives and areas of expertise, which when put together can really tell us how ecosystems work and respond.”
Willow Run Farm has a sustainable philosophy that includes grass-fed cattle, free-range chickens, and restoring a stream with the help of the Stroud Center.
Anderson was a retired high school advanced biology teacher, a Stroud Center adjunct research associate, and an environmental educator in our Stream School.