Smithsonian Science Education Center Sustainable Agriculture for Educators

 Classroom teachers, informal educators, and community members who support students ages 11–18 worldwide, you're invited to apply to our new, free 12-hour virtual professional development program!

The virtual Smithsonian Science for Global Goals "Agriculture!" Academy will support educators by offering step-by-step guidance and interactive resources to implement our latest community research guide with students and facilitate activities focused on agricultural sustainability.

Through this dual approach, educators will gain insight into integrating interdisciplinary topics into their classrooms from other educators in their cohort, professionals at the Smithsonian Science Education Center, and external collaborators.

By attending this training, you will:

- Learn how to support youth in understanding how agriculture connects to the self and community, and how environmental, economic, cultural, and social systems interact locally and globally. Click Read More to see details nd schedule options.

Zillow trick for studying South Branch river property flooding risk

Flooding, fire and wind risk profiles on real estate sites are helpful beyond considering risk as you look for interesting places to live. You can use the mapping tools to identify wetlands, wildlife habitat, and suitability for certain crops and other information that require expert help the when using the otherwise excellent online NRCS WebSoilSurvey and maybe even the County Assessors pages.

West Virginia Zillow data for flood and fire risk is still spotty (and maybe being blocked?), but you can see the same information by going to a property in Maryland or Virginia, choosing the map and then going to the Lot Lines option, choosing Flood, Fire, or Wind. Then scroll into our West Virginia watershed. In many cases you can discern annual risk, 1% risk ("100 year"), or 0.2% risk ("500 year") flood zones. It's good to review this - these zones have changed a lot in the last 20 years.

But as most know, for a specific address, use the FEMA Flood Map Service Center at https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home 

Those crows know you!

 

State Record Golden Rainbow Trout from the South Branch

 This actually happened in early April.  I learned about it only today (June!) in West Virginia Magazine.  The following is an earlier April 13 article by Bob McNally I found in Outdoor Life Magazine online.

‘Too Fat to Jump.’ West Virginia Teen’s Massive Golden Rainbow Trout Is a Pending State Record

Fifteen-year old Hunter Rohr spotted the fish in a deep hole and hooked it on a dead-drifted egg

By Bob McNally

Published Apr 13, 2026 4:36 PM EDT

Hunter Rohr with the pending state-record golden rainbow trout he caught on April 2. Photo courtesy Hunter Rohr

Every spring, West Virginia anglers head out on their own “Gold Rush.” The special two-week event revolves around golden rainbow trout, a unique strain of gold-colored rainbows that are produced in state hatcheries. This year, the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources stocked 50,000 of these trout in 69 lakes and streams. One hundred trout were tagged and worth special prizes.

Fifteen-year-old Hunter Rohr was one of the anglers looking for gold this month. On April 2, during his spring break, he and his high high-school buddy Bryar Sandy were searching for fish in streams near Rohr’s home in Buckhannon.

Read Next: Palomino Trout: The Lure of the Golden Mutants

Rohr and Sandy had started fishing at 7 a.m. that morning. They’d each caught a few smaller golden rainbows and released them all as they usually do. Around noon, they found a pile of fish in a deep hole on the South Branch of the Potomac River.

“We call it the South Branch of the Smoke Hole, and we fish it a good bit,” Rohr tells Outdoor Life. “That day we were using light spinning tackle, four-pound test line and floats to try and catch a golden. We wanted one with a tag.”

The water was deep but clear, and there were some other anglers working the same stretch of water. Using a pair of quality polarized sunglasses, he spotted an especially large fish holding near a log on the bottom.

Click <more> below for more photos.