Cacapon Institute - From the Cacapon to the Potomac to the Chesapeake Bay, we protect rivers and watersheds using science and education. 

As Fact Finders, we conduct research to gain insight into watershed issues of local and regional importance.

As Educators,  we work to create a future where a stream without a buffer looks as out of place as a smoker in a conference room looks today.  To foster that vision, our environmental education efforts focus on students first and, through them, the larger community.

As Problem Solvers, we seek innovative solutions to environmental problems.

Welcome! only search Cacapon Institute

Environmental Forums The 2010 Stream Cleaner Environmental Forum will run from March 15 to April 22, 2010.  For over five weeks students will join classmates and students from other Chesapeake Bay watershed schools in exploring one of the most complex environmental problems ever to confront the United States - saving the Chesapeake Bay from decades of pollution.  The lessons are posted now, and classes are strongly encouraged to begin the lessons as soon as they can.  Take a look by clicking on the phone in the High School.  Click here to learn more about eForums or sign up to participate.  Click here to see a participating school list and a map as of 2/5/2010. Participating schools also have a chance to receive technical and financial support to design and implement their own real-world best management practice projects - like these.  Oh Deer! 2009.  Classes from West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania participated.  Classes sought a consensus approach to deer population management that strikes an acceptable balance between people, deer, and the environment.    *To help students visualize some problems caused by too many deer, we created a short Flash slide show about deer impacts on our forested lands (at right).

5/27/09.  CI's eSchool is a winner!  We entered the Potomac Highlands Watershed School part of our website in the Adobe-TechSoup 2009 Show Your Impact design contest, and we won the Environmental Impact: Other Media category.  Take a look at our entry and all the other deserving winners at the Show Your Impact website.

April 13, 2009.  Benthic Macroinvertebrate activities debut in the Potomac Highlands watershed School.  Go to any classroom in the eSchool, then click on the BMI Poster to enter the benthic portal.  For a taste of the stunning new illustrations by Jennifer Gillies, click on the photo at left to met the "Cast of Characters."

Deer exclusion fencing experiment is testing a relatively low cost method to protect riparian forest plantings from severe damage from deer browsing.

Read about the WV PTS Forested Riparian Buffer Demonstration Project.  2nd & 3rd year results posted.

School Projects Webpage.  Also accessible from eSchool classrooms.

Cacapon Institute - From the Cacapon to the Potomac to the Chesapeake Bay, we protect rivers and watersheds using science and education.

Website  made possible by funding from The Norcross Wildlife Foundation,  the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Virginia Environmental Endowment, NOAA-BWET, USEPA, The MARPAT Foundation, and our generous members.