PEC trains environmental leaders of future
By Don Del Rosso
One day, the Piedmont Environmental Council fellows learned to gauge the water quality of Goose Creek in northern Fauquier based partly on the health and variety of its insect and plant population.
On another, they learned to survey property as part of a land-conservation exercise.
They also took a trip to Washington D.C., and learned about the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a regional group that focuses on land-planning issues.
"We got not only the academic stuff, but a hands-on demonstration of what PEC does," University of Virginia senior Caroline Mello said of the PEC 2007 fellowship program.
In its second year, the seven-week summer program exposes up to a dozen college students to the gamut of key environmental challenges facing the region and nation — air and water quality, land use and land planning, alternative energy sources and transportation.