The State Journal Frankfort, Ky. June 27, 2017 Kentucky State University was awarded a grant recently that should magnify the ripple effect its premier program – and others – should be having on local education.
The university and partnering school districts should take full advantage of the opportunity.
Kentucky State research and extension associate Ken Thompson, who applied for the funding, told reporter Austin Horn the $147,000 USDA grant will allow KSU to work with high schools locally and across the state.
Western Hills is among the schools that will have aquaculture as part of other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum. The program could have myriad profound positive impacts on secondary education, and younger students who will benefit from planned open houses at the university.
It can help open eyes to the career paths in a field where Thompson said jobs are “plentiful,” while providing an introduction to scientific study overall. The imperative to replenish and advance many other fields reliant on STEM skills will also be addressed.
Then there is the ability to use as a recruiting tool the aquaculture program that has remained a shining light despite KSU’s internal financial and administrative difficulties of late. It is not only the lone college aquaculture program in the state, it is by many measure a darn good one, a fact that should be touted at every opportunity. “The goal is to educate,” Thompson told Horn. “But also, we need to increase our student enrollment. My hope is to establish relationships withteachers, school administrators, parents and kids that are involved. Obviously we’re not going to get all those students, but hopefully some of those students would consider KSU that hadn’t thought about it before.”
Thompson and the school must now be good stewards of the grant to ensure it is maximized for all the above reasons. Room for growth abounds.
Carp discovery shows danger of inaction Traverse City Record-Eagle Traverse City, Mich. June 25, 2017
The Great Lakes are steaming toward an invasive species iceberg while those with power to steer away from catastrophe continue to belligerently delay any meaningful intervention that could prevent disaster.
This week that collision catapulted closer to the point of no return as officials announced they found an 8-pound Asian carp on the wrong side of electric barriers placed in the Chicago Area Waterway System to keep the destructive invasive species from reaching the nation’s most important freshwater ecosystem. It’s an intersection that promises to cause preventable, irreparable damage to the lakes we all so love.
The looming debacle for years has left many Michiganders shouting for intervention, but receiving frustrating silence in return. Those calls for action have warned repeatedly that something must be done to halt the march of the carp as they migrate upstream from the Mississippi River system toward Lake Michigan through the manmade channel near Chicago.
Continuous pleas for action have been met by unending false reassurances and years of studies – the latest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ draft report is being delayed by the White House – that still aren’t complete. Those reports are expected to outline the need for substantial barriers, far more than existing electric barriers, to prevent Asian carp from invading Lake Michigan where researchers say they likely would decimate delicate aquatic ecosystems by devouring plankton that forms the foundation of the food chain.
The carp, first imported to clean ponds at southern fish farms, spread into the Mississippi River system and have procreated like droves of water-borne rabbits.
Once in the Great Lakes there is no doubt the aquatic mishap would turn disastrous, potentially destroying the region’s $7 billion per year fisheries and dealing untold damage to our water-dependent economy.
The latest discovery proves long-held assertions by environmental and natural resource experts that the electric barriers in place south of Chicago are inadequate. It also hints at a problem potentially far worse than officials previously acknowledged.
Commercial fishermen caught a single, large-but-notmature silver carp 34 miles closer to the Lake Michigan shoreline than any before. U.S Fish and Wildlife officials spent Friday offering reassurances that the single carp isn’t a “three-alarm” emergency. Like an iceberg, the danger of Asian carp marching toward Lake Michigan isn’t what we see; it’s what lies below the water’s surface that could sink our beloved lakes. |
