Nelson County, Kentucky is county that has very diverse ecosystems.  Driving through the county you see knobs areas, flat areas, karst areas, farm land, residential and so much more.  One common thread throughout our community is that it all parts of our culture and economy are very closely tied to water.  The agriculture community and the bourbon industry thrive because of easy access to water that is rich in minerals from the limestone in the area.  The community has seen an increase in recreation boating on both moving and flat water and fishing remains a favorite past time of many.  However, many areas of the county are regularly faced with water issues including flooding, contaminants from runoff and erosion.  The county seat of Bardstown also is contending with aging water and sewer infrastructure.  

With this in mind, Nelson County 4-H Agent, Danielle Hagler worked with several community partners to offer service learning to youth through the 4-H program. The first of the project began with planning during the summer of 2021 and culminated in May of 2022 with Bloomfield Middle School 6th Graders completing their year-long 4-H Service Learning Project, by installing a demonstration rain garden at the Bloomfield Public Library.   The Bloomfield Middle school educators selected storm water runoff as a topic since their community is built over a stream and regularly experiences flooding events and erosion. 

Throughout the academic year, students learned about watersheds and water quality in their science class from monthly visit from Danielle. They did water quality testing and investigated the Enviroscape that provides a visual reminder of how water flows through our environment. In math class, they learned how to measure distance using their paces, calculated square footage, and used the EPA storm water calculator to determine the amount of runoff near their school based on the amount of permeable v/s impermeable surfaces. Students created educational poster about water quality issues, wrote letters to potential partners and filmed funding request videos. They designed the rain garden, came up with a budget and created Powerpoint presentations to communicate the plan. The completed garden has an educational sign teaching visitors about the benefits of rain gardens and UK publications about rain gardens are available for library patrons to take. 

As their school is scheduled for closing, they selected the nearby Bloomfield Library as the build site, so that the entire community could learn about ways to improve water quality and reduce storm water runoff. Many community partners help make this project possible:

1. The 6th Graders, Teachers, Backpack Leader, Leadership group and Bloomfield Middle Maintenance
2. Nelson County 4-H and Cooperative Extension Staff
3. Nelson County Soil Conservation District for Funding
4. Big 3, Clint and Megan Hutchins- Use of equipment, labor and top soil
5. Jason Hagler of Vermeer Heartland- Use of Equipment and Labor for trenching
6. Lowes of Bardstown- Supplies at cost
7. The Horticulture Club and Shari Dutton, UK staff Horticulturalist - expertise & plants
8. Brad Lee- UK Extension Water Quality- Site selection/ garden design expertise, rain garden sign
9. City of Bloomfield and other utility partners for utility locates
10. ATD Lawn service- Perfect placement of mulch delivery
11. Prime Choice Building Supply- supplies for the rain garden sign

The Nelson County 4-H Stream Team was created through a partnership with an Americorp for Nazareth and New Pioneers for a Sustainable Future.  The Americorp volunteer had taken part in the UK Master Naturalist program and was introduced to the Stream Team while participating in a Master Natural field opportunity.  The volunteer approached Danielle Hagler, CES Agent for 4-H YD and began work on planning a Stream Team program.  Utilizing the 4-H Stream Team Curriculum and resources, the group meet monthly for education and citizen science  activities.  Around 20 youth have taken part in the Nelson County 4-H Stream Team project, monitoring a stream in Nelson County and reporting their data to KY Water Watch.  6 of the youth also took part in the pilot KY 4-H Stream Team Contest, demonstrating the knowledge they have gained.  The leaders and club members also participated in a community service learning project.  They set up a booth at the Nelson County 4-H Carnival and educated the community about watershed and water quality.  As a result of this education more youth became interested in joining the stream team.