Team Susquehanna hit the water this week in Cooperstown, NY, launching what will become a once-in-a-life-time event for 12 Pennsylvania high school students.

Expedition Susquehanna is a 30-day adventure down the Susquehanna River from New York to Maryland. By the time the team reaches the Chesapeake Bay they will have traveled over 400 miles, seeing both the pristine and the polluted Susquehanna, as well as talking to citizens about restoration efforts underway.

This is the second expedition being sponsored by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the first was held last year on the James River in Virginia. The Expedition is offered through CBF’s highly successful environmental education program which offers daily, weekly, and bi-weekly educational experiences for students and teachers throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

In Pennsylvania, CBF’s Susquehanna Watershed Education Program, runs educational programming 8 months per year, getting hundreds of students and their teachers out on to the Susquehanna River and local waterways.

“We’re very excited about this expedition. It’s going to offer educational opportunities that our students could not find anywhere but on the river, “said Matthew Ehrhart, Pennsylvania CBF Executive Director.”

The Expedition Susquehanna crew is made up of high school students from 9th to 12th grade who are active members of FFA. FFA is nationally known for its work in developing leadership skills in young adults through agricultural education, and CBF offers the nation’s largest environmental education program. Taken in tandem, these strengths provide a background that will hone the young leaders’ knowledge of agriculture and the environment, two of the region’s most pressing issues.

During the first week of the journey, Team Susquehanna will explore the headwaters in Cooperstown, NY, paddle into Pennsylvania, take a 2-day excursion into World’s End State Park for fly-fishing, snorkeling, and water quality studies, and then paddle their way into the Meshoppen area.

The public can follow this exciting journey through a website created just for the trip. The site offers interactive maps, video and audio clips, photo galleries, and journals submitted by the students.

To follow the journey and find out what the students are learning, visit the Expedition Susquehanna webpage.

NewsClips: State College Teen Canoes to Explore Susquehanna’s Ecology

Susquehanna Expedition Paddles Into Bradford County

6/23/2006