GCC volunteers will help clean up Oatka Creek

Oatka Creek is the target of a clean up project, the first group service project of the academic year for Genesee Community College's Earth Club and Environmental Studies.

It takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25. The students will cover one and a half miles of the Oatka Creek Park on Union Street in the Town of Wheatland.

The Creek Clean Up is part of a national initiative sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Clean-up and the American Littoral Society's Annual New York State Beach Clean Up.

This is the third time Genesee students and faculty members have volunteered for the cause.

Students and volunteers will break into teams, with each team equipped with a data recording card and a trash bag. Teams will gather trash and record what they find. At the end of the day, the trash will be totaled and weighed.

Last year, the volunteers collected eight bags of trash, totaling 190 pounds of debris. The data will be compiled and will be sent into the national Coastal Clean-up organizers.

"It's wonderful to see these students spend their Saturday helping out for a great cause," said Maureen Leupold, Earth Club member and professor of Biology at Genesee. "Although this may be one small creek clean-up, it is all part of the bigger picture of environmental responsibility."

The Ocean Conservancy is the world's foremost advocate for the oceans. Through science-based advocacy, research, and public education, they inform, inspire and empower people to speak and act on behalf of healthy oceans.

Ocean Conservancy is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has offices in Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific, with support from more than half a million members and volunteers.

The American Littoral Society is a national, nonprofit, public-interest organization comprised of over 6,000 professional and amateur naturalists, with headquarters in Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

The society seeks to encourage a better scientific and public understanding of the marine environment, provide a unified voice advocating protection of the delicate fabric of life along the shore, and has been protecting coastal habitats since 1961.

Genesee Community College is on the forefront of this exciting and important industry with recent enhancements to its Environmental Studies degree program. This program offers an excellent introduction to the field, with plenty of hands-on learning, and small class and laboratory sizes offering exceptional instruction.

Environmental Studies students have access to an on-campus nature trail featuring plants and other wildlife demarcated with signage along the way. Students also have the opportunity to go out in the field for hands-on experience within the rural region that surrounds the GLOW region.

To find out more about Genesee's Environmental Studies program visit <http://www.genesee.edu >.

For further information about Genesee's Environmental Studies program or to volunteer at the Creek Clean-up, please contact Biology Professor Leupold at 343-0055, ext. 6394.