POMEROY — For Karla Sanders, an AmeriCorps volunteer at the Meigs Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) offices, ensuring a healthy stewardship of the Leading Creek Watershed is dear to her heart.

Sanders came to Meigs County last summer after completing her degree in geography and environmental studies at Ohio University where she was trained as a cartographer covering areas which included visual art, social development and environmental science.

One of her projects since joining SWCD has been to organize a Leading Creek Citizen’s Committee (LCCC) whose mission is to design projects run by the community and geared toward strengthening the watershed. “Members of the committee will assist in tasks and projects toward that goal,” said Sanders.

The committee, she explained, will be run entirely by local residents and landowners who recognize that a permanent watershed needs a strong community to maintain and support healthy habitats.

Her goal for the committee is to establish a permanent watershed stewardship, to design programs to help residents save money, to increase community interaction, to make local homes healthier, and to provide a place where youth can be educated. Since the proposed committee will be community based, it means that the power to establish projects based entirely on the needs of the community can be established.

The Leading Creek Watershed consists of approximately 150 square miles and stretches across the western half of Meigs County as well as into portions of Athens and Gallia Counties. Nearly 7,500 people live within the watershed which has been affected by water quality and habitat impairments caused by abandoned mine land, acid mine drainage, agriculture and logging. “Those impairments”, said Sanders, “degrades the natural environment which leads to a reduced quality of life for local residents and wildlife.”

The committee’s goal will be “to build on the accomplishments of the Meigs SWCD by designing new, lasting projects to ensure stewardship of the watershed such as sustainable workshops, community gardens, recycling programs, after-school programs and raising funds to carry out the various projects.

As a way of getting residents interested, Sanders met in the fall with a group where a discussion was held on how to encourage others to become involved. Discussed was the possibility of reaching out to people who lived in the watershed area and getting them to write stories about their experiences and then have the stories published.

Sanders, who grew up in Cincinnati and for the past five years has lived in Athens, spent two summers working at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency facility in Cincinnati while in college. When she completes her AmeriCorps volunteer work here later this year she plans to remain in OU to earn her masters degree in environmental studies.

Her dream is for a career with National Geographic or some government agency, or maybe establishing a cartography business or environment retreat in southeastern Ohio. “Here is where I feel most at home,” she concluded.