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.

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Our Tenth Annual Stream Scholars Summer Camp will run from July 16 to July 20, 2012.  Download a flyer.  Take a look at previous camps.
Stream Scholars Summer Camp 2011

 

Cacapon Institute has long been engaged in forestry for the purpose of improving watershed health.  We now have a forestry section on our website.  As one component of our forestry program, we are working with the WVDOF, WVCA, and WVDOH on the WV CommuniTree Program.  Fall 2012 CTree applications for tree grants are now available.   Grants awarded for planting in Spring 2012 are now complete (map of CTree projects). 

 

Cacapon Institute is also the Coordinator of the Potomac Watershed Partnership.  The PWP focuses on forest conservation and expansion for watershed health throughout the Potomac Watershed.

 

 

Deckers Creek is the second stream simulated in A Virtual Stream Sampler, the eSchool's realistic simulation of volunteer stream assessments with water quality measurements, habitat assessments, and benthic macroinvertebrate collections.  Deckers Creek runs through Morgantown, WV, and has issues with Acid Mine Drainage.    Just click on the BMI Poster in any classroom to enter the Benthic Portal, then click on the Virtual Stream Sampler icon.  This activity completes the suite of eSchool lessons on stream sampling and benthic macroinvertebrates.

 

Riparian Forest Plantings
	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.   At left see slide show of a new riparian tree planting and deer fence construction project at the Prospect Hall facility near Middleway, WV.

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.