This year, during the twice annual monitoring event up at the Holden Mine Site, Rio Tinto initiated a student outreach opportunity between Floyd|Snider monitoring staff and the Holden Village Community School. Holden Village was the former miner’s village and is now a remote wilderness community and important project stakeholder. 

Kara Hitchko and Evan Malczyk, two senior environmental scientists at Floyd|Snider, gave a presentation to the students about the remediation project and monitoring work before taking the students outdoors to talk about revegetation and ways to identify plant species. They also took them to Railroad Creek where the students had the opportunity to measure water quality parameters with the water quality meter and take notes on a field form, getting a taste of what it’s like to do field work. 

The students had a great time and gained a new awareness about their surroundings. “Wow, we’ve never met real scientists before,” they told Kara and Evan, and later handed them hand-made ‘thank you’ cards.  

Floyd|Snider has supported Rio Tinto with the evaluation of remedial alternatives for the second phase of the cleanup,  long-term compliance and remedial monitoring and multifaceted agency coordination. Thank you to the Rio Tinto Site Manager for initiating this awesome opportunity and the teacher and students at Holden Village Community School. You are rock-stars!