In 2003, Rural Action’s watershed restoration projects began offering summer day camps focusing on environmental issues of the Sunday, Monday and Federal Creek watersheds. The approach was hands-on learning in the natural environment. Youth participating in the camps learned about the effects of coal mining in the region, acid mine drainage, and healthy stream indicators by actually getting into the streams and searching for macroinvertebrates, testing the water for acidity, turbidity, and metal content, among other indicators. They learned to define a watershed by being in it and seeing it first hand. They also learned about remediation techniques watershed projects are using to clean the waters in Athens and Perry County streams. Successful watershed day camps have been held for the past six summers