US Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District, Vol. 3, Issue 1, March 2012

Trout stocking begins

District tackles reservoirs’ water control manuals

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On the Cover

US Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District

COL William GrahamDistrict Commander

Public Affairs Chief

Jeffrey Hawk

EditorSheila Tunney

Layout Rachel Fay HaringMargaret Luzier

Public Affairs Office

412-395-7500www.lrp.usace.army.mil

Headwaters Update is a quar-terly publication of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pitts-burgh District. It is produced for electronic distribution by the Public Affairs Office. Views and opinions expressed in the Head-waters Update are not necessar-ily those of the Department of the Army or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Submissions may be sent to CELRP-PA@ usace.army.mil for consideration in upcoming editions. Stories sub-mitted should be in a Word doc-ument format. All photographs should include a caption and be high resolution (at least 4x6 inches and 300 dpi).

In this Issue3. Disaster Planning 101: Failing to plan is planning to fail

5. Geospatial Engineering meets local Afghans

8. ‘The art of luring fish’ at Shenango River Lake

11. Pittsburgh Corps tackles water control manuals

12. LDP graduates, presents district value awareness plan

By Tom Howko, LRD Where will you or your family be when an emer-gency such as a tornado, earthquake, chemical acci-dent, snow storm or other disaster strikes? Emergencies arise quickly and without warning and can force you to evacuate your neighborhood or confine you to your home. What would you do if basic services — water, gas, electricity or telephones — were cut off? What would you do with your pet if you needed to evacuate? What would you do if your medications ran out? Sure, local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach every-one right away. If disaster strikes, you need to know how to take care of yourself and your family. This is especially true for Corps employees, because you may be at work when the emergency strikes and not be able to leave your work area. People can cope with emergencies by preparing in advance and working together with their families as a team. Preparing for an emergency is a responsibility of each individual. We can’t control all the emergen-cies that will occur in our lives, but we can be ready

to face them by knowing what to do and taking action to prepare. Remember the old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail.” By not having a family emergency plan everyone is familiar with, you are planning to turn an emergency into a disaster. Two things will always help you in an emergency or disaster: clear thinking and quick reactions. If you can stay calm in a crisis, you’ll be better able to make the right decisions. Once you decide the best action to take in a particular situation, do it! There’s no room for hesitation in an emergency.

These Five Steps to Safety can help you create your emergency response plan and keep things from turning into a disaster: • Step 1: Understand What Could Happen • Step 2: Create an Emergency Plan • Step 3: Create a Preparedness Checklist• Step 4: Create an emergency kit • Step 5: Keep the plan current

If you want more information on how to prepare yourself and your family for an emergency, visit

www.72hours.org. You can also learn what to do in response to a specific disaster, like an earthquake or winter storm.

Note: This article originally ran in Lakes and Riv-ers Division’s December edition of “LRD Beat.” Tom Howko is the LRD Regional Civil Emergency Planner

Disaster Planning 101: Failing to plan is planning to fail

A roof in the Alberta community of Tuscalossa, Ala., rests on the ground after tornadoes swept through central Alabama on April 27, 2011. (Photo by Jeffrey Henon, USACE)

Story and photo by Rachel Fay Haring, PAO In honor of Black History Month, Pittsburgh District employees were treated to a presentation from Dr. Yolanda Denise Covington-Ward on Feb. 27. Covington is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Afri-

Presentation helps Corps break down stereotypes

Dr. Yolanda Denise Covington-Ward presents “Black Women, Her-Story, and the Challenge of Self-Defini-tion,” in honor of Black History Month.

cana Studies at the University of Pitts-burgh. She has also been published in a number of academic journals and was recently recognized as one of the “Fab 40 under 40” by the New Pittsburgh Courier. Her presentation, “Black Women, Her-Story, and the Challenge of Self-Definition,” ex-plored the challeng-es African American women have faced in history, and how they fought to over-come those

challenges. Covington also encouraged em-

ployees in attendance to “get beyond stereotypes.” By showing pictures, discussing the stereotyped content and then asking Corps employees to find different contexts for the pic-tures, Covington helped the group break down typical stereotypes. More than two dozen Corps em-ployees attended the presentation.

Twelve volunteers help stock rain-bow trout with officers from the PA Fish and Boat Commission in the outflow of Shenango Dam. (See page 4. Photo by Rich Egger, Shenango)

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By Grover Pegg, Mahoning In January, Mahoning Creek Lake Ranger, Grover Pegg, held two programs for the students of Divine Redeemer Elementary School, Ford City, Pa. At the school, Mrs. Kephart’s 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes were given a presentation on wood duck habitats along Little Mahon-ing Creek. The program not only gave the students a better under-standing of local ducks, but also on nesting habitat, box construction and placement on local federal lands. Students were given the op-portunity to learn about predation,

Students, ranger construct wood duck habitats

habitat locations and proper proce-dures for nesting box installation and maintenance. At the end of the program students were given the chance to practice what they had learned by working together and building a cedar nesting box in the classroom. Drills and hammers were in motion as the students constructed each box. The students also signed the boxes they built to mark their accomplishment. With help from volunteers, Pegg anticipates install-ing the newly built boxes in spring along the projects lands of Mahon-ing Creek Lake and Dam.

Mahoning Ranger Grover Pegg helps students from Divine Redeemer El-ementary School, Ford City, Pa., build a wood duck nesting box. (Photo by Mrs. Kemphart, Divine Redeemer Elementary School)

By Maj. Christopher J. Scott, Project Management Alpha Company, 4th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Divi-sion, was responsible for four districts along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan in southern Nan-garhar Province. In June of 2009 the company assumed control of the area and inherited the mission (which began in September of 2009) of connecting the local popu-lation to the government, separat-ing them from antigovernment forces, and improving economic opportunities in the 4,000-square-kilometer area. The company partnered with four district gover-nors, five district police forces, an Afghan border patrol company and two Afghan infantry companies.

It was a challenging opportunity for an engineer company with two platoons, an attached platoon of military police soldiers and a pair of howitzers. After 60 days in-theater, it was obvious there was still a large fundamental gap in knowledge of the cultural geography in the company area of operations. Geo-spatial intelligence provided a comprehensive representation of the physical terrain, but we did not know local naming conventions to describe small villages inside the district boundaries. The local population used the names of small villages rather than political district boundaries to describe locations, thereby hampering the effective-ness of local reporting. Also, our contact with local leadership ended

with the appointed district gover-nor. With tribal leadership such a driving force in Afghan society, we knew that communicating with the elders was essential to understand the disconnected populace. We needed access, and we needed it in concert with the district governors.

The Solution Operation Jantacular was devel-oped as a 45-day survey program to meet over breakfast with the elders of each village to produce a geodetic product representing the human terrain in our area of operations. “Jantacular” is a Brit-ish term for breakfast, which was appropriate for our intent. The aim was to meet with the leaders of one village daily. This would allow us get the data to complete the survey,

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The Human Touch: Geospatial engineering meets local Afghans

1st Lt. Maloney shakes hands with Village Malik (village elder) in Sherzad District, Nangarhar Prov. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

By Kyle Kraynak, Shenango On Feb. 1, Shenango Lake Rangers Rich Egger and Kyle Kraynak, along with 12 volun-teers, helped stock 1,000 rain-bow trout with officers from the PA Fish and Boat Commission. Fish were stocked in the outflow of Shenango Dam and other downstream areas. This time of year is consid-ered the extended trout season. The daily limit is three trout. Opening day of the regular trout season in our region will be 8 a.m., April 14. Please check www.fish.state.pa.us/fishpub/summary/inland.html for additional PA fishing information.

Trout stocking at Shenango

Volunteers form an assembly line to pass 5-gallon buckets full of trout from truck to river. (Pho-to by Rich Egger, Shenango)

Three-year-old rainbow trout, raised at the Cory Fish Hatchery, were stocked in the Shenango River. (Photo by Rich Egger, Shenango)

which would help us understand the fundamental challenges and let us spend more of our deployment tackling them. Entering the data in the geospatial intelligence database would ensure that the information lived beyond our deployment. Preparation It was decided that three to four village elders would be the right size group, large enough to feel comfortable among Americans, but small enough to discourage sidebar conversations. Our civil-military “Jantacular Team” was composed of an American law enforcement professional, a district support team comprising representatives from the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Develop-ment, the company intelligence team leader, platoon leaders (if available) and the company com-mander. At least one interpreter attended to facilitate the mission. It quickly became apparent that choosing the right interpreter and maintaining consistency were important for success. “James” was our best interpreter, able to antici-pate issues with less direction from us. The primary district governor in the Khogyani tribal region pro-vided us with initial information, describing the names and general location of the 44 villages in our four districts. He pointed them out on our tactical operations cen-ter wall map, which we roughly outlined. He set up meetings with village elders, as did his counter-parts in the other districts. Their co-operation was essential and greatly appreciated. Large printouts of each village, without any added graphics or lay-ers, formed the centerpiece for our discussions. The village elders un-

derstood the imagery much better when it was oriented on a horizon-tal surface, rather than hanging on the wall. Once, after an especially grueling two-hour session, all of our work had to be redone when the elders discovered that we had not oriented the mountains on our imagery towards the real Tora Bora Mountains, and all the features had been identified at the wrong end of the map. We contracted to have a tradi-tional breakfast of flatbread, sweet cream, water and tea to serve our guests whenever visiting elders came to the gate of our forward operating base. This flexibility was important since the visitors often arrive an hour early or two hours late. By hosting the meeting at our base (and occasionally providing travel reimbursement) we could conduct jantacular meetings when-ever the locals were available. Meetings did not affect our patrol schedule or require manpower out-side of the team. Execution

The company intelligence support team and an interpreter escorted the elders from the front gate to the meeting room, where we made introductions, engaged in small talk and exchanged cell phone numbers. Refreshments were served as we began talking about their village. The best meetings began with questions about local history, giving the leaders a chance to brag about their village. For mapping, we tried to distinguish the boundaries of the village first, and then helped the elders find their own qalats (walled living com-pounds) on the map. Anyone who has spent hours exploring Google Earth™ knows how much fun this can be. Once they found their own homes, the elders were usually well oriented to the imagery and could identify the locations of hospitals, schools, mosques, powerful fami-lies and terrain features such as hills and streams. Output Once an initial map survey was complete, the data was transcribed

into the Tactical Ground Reporting System. This turned grid coordi-nates into a village name, which allowed the operations center to assist in battle tracking and to coordinate with the Afghan Na-tional Police. It also facilitated “tip line” operations by translating a village name into grid coordinates for U.S. patrols. Communication with local nationals improved when we could use their local village names to narrow down the location of a story rather than using vague descriptions such as “two miles from the old, burned-out Russian tank,” as landmarks. Additionally, we created a PowerPoint map of our operating environment, which was useful for describing various village metrics in reports to higher headquarters. Once the maps had been tran-scribed internally, we shipped them off to the brigade Geospatial Intel-ligence Cell (GIC) for data entry. The GIC then provided us with a

new tactical operations center map, complete with village boundar-ies, locations of hos-pitals and mosques and the local names of major terrain features. They also provided high-resolution im-agery of each village, which was compiled in binders for patrol lead-ers to take on missions. This document was very helpful in gather-ing information from local nation-als and with air-to-ground integra-tion of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information during cordon-and-search missions. Conclusion Operation Jantacular provided information the company used to drive most of its follow-on mis-sions, and the data it produced facilitated a successful battlefield

hand-off at the end of the deploy-ment. Without the initial survey, we would have continued business as usual and left the follow-on unit with the same knowledge gaps that had been passed down for nearly a decade. Note: Maj. Scott was the com-mander of Alpha Company during its deployment in Nangarhar Prov-ince, Afghanistan.

(cont. page 7)Crooked Creek house setting for drug enforcement training

Officers of the Armstrong County Narcotics Enforcement Team hold drug enforcement training at Crooked Creek in January. (Photo by Brigid Beatty, Leader Times Staff Writer)

By Melissa Salsgiver, Crooked Creek On Jan. 13, officers of the Arm-strong County Narcotics Enforce-ment Team simulated executing search warrants at Crooked Creek Lake. The training exercise was in col-laboration with the state attorney general’s office, the county drug task force and the district attorney’s office. It emphasized the cohesive team work with officers of Kittanning, Ford City, Gilpin, Kiski, Parks, Worthington, North Buffalo, Free-port and Leechburg police depart-ments.

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An Afghan Police Officer hands out flyers to children during the census and survey in Memlah Village, Nangarhar Prov. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

A Malik rides a donkey in Khogyani District, Nan garhar Prov. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

The art of luring fishPhotos by Rich Egger, Shenango

On March 14, Shenango River Lake Rangers Luke Houston and Kyle Kraynak spent the day constructing fish attractors from live Christmas trees lined along the shore at the Mahaney Rec-reation Area. Holes are drilled through the tree trunks which are then tied to cement block. The blocks will keep the trees submerged as the lake reaches its summer pool level. Attractors are a common fisheries management tool, providing structure and habitat for the fish in the man-made lake. The trees used for the project were donated by local residents and commercial retailers.

By Suzanne Estock, Youghiogheny The staff of Youghiogheny River Lake was awarded the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division Natural Re-source Management Project of the Year for 2010. The staff was recognized for its various initiatives and innovative management practices to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and manage-ment, provide a high-quality recreational experience for

visitors and practice sound steward-ship of natural resources during a period of constrained budgets. Improvements included a more effective use of the Facility & Equipment Maintenance System, in-creased use of volunteers, the reduc-tion of contracting costs and steps taken to reduce water and gasoline consumption. Emphasis was also placed on increasing the use of public involvement in decision mak-ing, and a commitment was made to improve public and employee safety. The project staff worked exten-sively with surrounding residents and communities in the revision of the project Shoreline Management Plan and the completion of a lake reallocation agreement with the

Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County. The staff continued its strong tradition of working with organizations such as the Chestnut Ridge Chapter of Trout Unlimited, the Yough Walleye Association, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Penn-sylvania Fish & Boat Commission and the U.S. Forest Service to effectively manage project lands and waters.

Yough named 2010 Project of the Year

Front Row: Dave Rogers, Lake Project Assistant; Suzanne Estock, Lead Park Ranger; Brian Luprek, Resource Manager; Jim Stark, Maintenance Leader; Matt Slezak, Park Ranger. Center Row: Kevin Nogroski, Park Ranger; Emily Potter, Park Ranger; Bill Younkin, Maintenance Worker. Back Row: Cody Covey, Maintenance Worker; Jeff Watson, Maintenance Trainee.

By Don Bole, Regulatory On Feb. 14, six members of the Regulatory Branch attended an underground mine tour of the CONSOL Enlow Fork Mine in Greene County, Pa. These Corps employees had a unique opportunity to learn the processes and challenges in-volved in deep coal mining. This valuable experience will help Corps regulators evalu-ate applications for Section 404 Clean Water Act/Department of the Army permits for surface im-pacts to streams and wetlands.

Regulators tour deep mine in Greene CountyWillie Grant (far left) from CON-SOL Energy, accompanied Pittsburgh Dis-trict regulatory specialists (from left to right) Jon Coleman, Greg Currey, Kristen Hoesch, Don Bole, Matt Mason and Jared Pritts, on a tour of the Enlow Fork Mine in Greene County, Pa. (Photo courtesy of CONSOL)

By Rachel Fay Haring, PAO Pittsburgh District employees have begun the daunting process of creating up-to-date water control manuals for each of the 16 reservoirs in the district. Technical lead and hydraulic engineer, Katie Bates, explained that water control manuals are documents that tell the Corps how to operate their reservoirs. The manuals contain vital institutional knowledge that as-sists the Corps in balancing the congressionally man-dated purposes for each reservoir. Because most reservoirs have multiple purposes, it’s often difficult to balance the operations while en-suring unbiased operations. Stonewall Jackson Lake, for example, has several responsibilities including flood damage reduction, water quality, water supply, recreation, and fish and wildlife management. When complete, each manual will explicitly outline opera-tional parameters for each facility based on the unique characteristics of that reservoir. “If everyone in water management were unavail-able, I should be able to pick up these manuals and keep things running,” said Bates. “These manuals are like an encyclopedia for the reservoir.” When Corps manuals were pub-licly questioned after major Midwest flooding in the spring of 2011 and the Nashville Flood of 2010, Maj. Gen. John Peabody, commander of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Divi-sion (LRD) at that time, issued a memo directing the manual updates. Work on the Stonewall Jackson Lake manual began in

July 2011, followed by the Union City Dam manual in January 2012. Updating these manuals takes a major effort. Eigh-teen authors and 11 Project Delivery Team members are working under the direction of Project Manager Dave Heidish. Several sections are involved in the editing process including environmental, dam safety, recreation, economics and water management. “It would be nearly impossible for one person to write these manuals,” said Bates. “They reflect so much knowledge, the specifications for each paragraph are so exact, and the approval process is complex. This whole project is a large effort, one that the District hasn’t gone through since the 1970s.” Currently, the Stonewall Jackson manual is be-ing reviewed by LRD. Once the review is complete, appropriate edits will be made and a public comment period will be available before the manual is sent to Corps of Engineers headquarters. After headquarters’ review and approval, the manual will be ready for publication and use.

Pittsburgh Corps tackles water control manuals for area reservoirs

Stonewall Jackson Lake is the first of the district’s 16 reservoirs to have its water control manual updated. (USACE Photo)

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LDP graduates, presents district value awareness plan Story and photos by Sheila Tunney, PAO On Dec. 8, students of the 2011 Leadership Devel-opment Program (LDP) graduated during a celebra-tion at the District Office. The LDP is a Corps-wide initiative which seeks to “develop and nurture ‘leaders at all levels’ who accom-plish the mission, meet challenges, and create a learn-ing organization that enables us to continuously adapt and adjust the USACE strategic direction to sustain our relevance to the Army and the nation.” Each year 10 district employees are selected (from applications) to not only receive basic leadership train-ing, but to be a part of a class project which will benefit the district and/or Corps as a whole. Before the graduation ceremony, this year’s class presented their project to their LDP Cadre, the district commander and his senior leaders. The project tasked the students to devise a plan to

answer the question: How can the Pittsburgh District portray its value more effectively to the citizens of the Upper Ohio River Basin? To answer that, the group met several times over the course of 2011, brainstormed and came up with 18 alternatives to get the message out. They then chose four of the 18 for immediate action: a district over-view slide, an elevator speech, a district resume, and the addition of district web links to business cards and signature blocks. These were also were the easiest and most-cost effective ways to meet their project goal. The group also researched how the district rates in terms of stakeholder awareness of the services it pro-vides. They enlisted private organizations, including a retail store headquarters, a chemical company, colleges and local government agencies (including several dis-trict projects) to help make their determination. The students reported many stakeholders did not know the district even existed, what the Corps of Engi-neers did, and/or what the district’s value is. They also reported some of the district’s own employees were uninformed or unclear about what the district does outside of their section. During the project portion, each of the proposed four alternatives were presented. These items are avail-able to review on the district’s internal SharePoint site. The district overview slides created by the group list relative figures showing how the district’s missions, including flood damage reduction, navigation and rec-reation, benefit the people within our region. They are intended to be used during any and every presentation given to stakeholders, before the main subject, to give a quick overview of what the district does.

Pittsburgh District senior leaders watch an elevator speech featuring Yougiogheny River Lake Ranger Matt Slezak during the 2011 Leadership Development Program’s presentation of their class project.

Leadership Development Program 2011 participant Marc Glowczeski, Engineering, presents an overview of leadership tactics learned throughout the year.

The resume is a collection of facts and figures about the district in list form with a map of the district boundaries on the reverse side. Employees can distrib-ute the sheet to stakeholders during job fairs, public events and meetings as well as to commercial and recreational boaters. The elevator speech video the class presented fea-tured Youghiogheny Ranger Matt Slezak answering the question, “What do you do?” in 30 seconds or less. Slezak’s speech incorporates not only what he does as a ranger but what the Corps of Engineers does overall. The Pittsburgh District has a web presence with its comprehensive public web site, Facebook Pages (11), Twitter and Flickr sites. Adding this information to the back of business cards or to email signature blocks pro-motes district web resources within the organization and to outside contractors and stakeholders. For more information on the LDP contact Elaine Lisk in the Management Initiatives Branch.

The 2011 Leadership Development Program Class of 2011 is flanked by Acting Deputy for Programs and Project Management Jeanine Hoey on the left and Dis-trict Engineer Col. William Graham on the right. First row: Brian Luprek (Cadre), Norrice King, Carole House-holder, Nancy Mullen, Ashley Petraglia, Sherrie Plonski and Bob Wenger (Instructor). Second row: Matt Slezak, Michael Pahlman, Arlene Bigger, Jim Klanica (Cadre), John Dilla (Cadre), Judi Sisteck and Marc Glowczeski.

something or talk to someone about something that’s not right.Energy – Enough said.The future – A manager is thinking “now,” a leader is thinking about down the road.Adaptability – When things change, a leader is willing to put himself out there and give of himself to take care of things.Ownership – Leaders have pride and take owner-ship of their organization, and they have the ability to inspire that in others.Facing adversity – Somebody’s going to give you pushback. A leader should have the ability to deal with pushback without taking it personally.Obligation – A leader has to say something if there’s something they don’t likeTeam oriented – A leader gets the job done, gets people to want to get it done, and want to get it done as a team.Positive influence – Being a leader doesn’t mean you are a manager or supervisor. It means you have the ability to positively influence something and you do it.

‘What are you looking for in a leader?’ District Engineer Col. William Graham presided over the Leadership Development Program gradua-tion ceremonies. He said he invites his most senior chiefs and managers to attend the program because it refreshes them on the bedrock principles of lead-ership. During the presentation his question to these established leaders was, “What are you looking for in a leader?” Their unattributed answers follow:Understanding – of other parts of the district, not just your section or element, but of how all those elements work together. I want a person who can understand how what they do impacts everyone else in the district.People skills – Anyone can manage staff, but a leader needs to be able to communicate on their subordinates’ level--and listen as well.Flexibility – Every situation is different. A leader will find the right solution; he or she can’t be so rigid.Positive attitude – This will go a long way to in-spire and motivate the people you want to lead.Honesty and personal courage – A leader will say

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GS Tom McHugh,

Office of Counsel

Employees of the 1st Quarter

Wage Grade Mark Demattio,

Montgomery Lock and Dam

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is best known for its water resource development and military construction missions, but its emergency response work is a vital endeavor that has grown in

importance and visibility in the wake of the terror-ist attacks of September 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 1882 Congress made it official and formally tasked the Corps of Engineers with a rapid emergency re-sponse mission.

New book traces history of Army Engineer disaster assistance

Pittsburgh District’s Resident Archeologist/Environ-mental and Cultural Resources Chief Deb Campbell, was recognized by Acting Corps Commander Maj. Gen. W.B. “Bo” Temple for her work with the Sen-eca Nation of Indians.

The Department of the Army Commander’s Award for Public Service was awarded to West Branch State Park Manager John Wilder. The award was presented by Kirwan Dam & Reservoir Resource Manager, Doug Krider.

Darren McAninch, a student ranger at Shenango River Lake, was recognized during an awards banquet at Thiel College on March 1. McAninch recently completed his intern-ship at Shenango, focusing his efforts on a complete reno-

vation of the Seth Myers Nature Trail. The certificate was presented by Thiel College in recognition of his outstanding work and his potential as an exceptional future professional. McAninch will graduate in May with a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Science.

Wage Grade Paul Kachmar,

PEWARS

Employees of the 2nd Quarter

GS Suzanne Estock, Youghiogheny

KUDOS

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Bulldogs don’t quit, no matter how tough things get. Debra Scribner, administrative support assistant, Kanda-har Vicinity Area Office, demonstrated a “no-quit” attitude while working solo in her specialty. “Debra has worked tirelessly for the past two months as the sole administrative assistant for the resi-dent office personnel stationed at Camp Linsdey,” said supervisor Cesar Lopez, “She has been instrumental in coordinating communication with all the resident of-fices to facilitate the transition of a new Area Engineer and establishment of new operating procedures.” The Kandahar Area Office team has increased its efficiency in its contractor payments because of her efforts, he said. This has resulted in increased produc-tivity by the contractor’s in the field.

Scribner Afghanistan Engineer District-South’s Bulldog of the Week

District Com-mander Col. William “Butch” Graham and Operations Chief Jim Fisher presented awards in December. Recognized were Sara Hillegas, Bryan

Ciccocioppo, Jessica Corton, Michael Curtis, Mark Jones, Kristen Kosaber and Elliott Porter. Willie Maynard, pictured, was selected as Wage Grade Employee of the Year.

Volunteers needed E at Yough’s

AnnualSpecial

Recreation Day

By April Hawkey, Tygart Tygart Lake conducted a bald eagle survey on Jan. 10. Although no eagles were spotted during the survey, several other species including American black ducks, ring-necked ducks, hooded and com-mon mergansers, buffleheads, pied-billed grebes, red-shouldered hawks, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, mallards and winter wrens, were spotted.

Tygart eagle survey spots many other species

WV Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Biologist Sue Olcott uses a spotting scope to examine the bald eagle nest for activity at Tygart Lake near the dam in the State Park/Marina parking area. (Photo by April Hawkey,Tygart)

Headwaters Snapshots

Pittsburgh District’s Mark Smith (far right) meets with locals in Afghanistan. Smith is one of 11 district employees currently deployed in support of Corps of Engineers’ civil works projects in the country. (Photo courtesy of Mark Smith)

Mark Zaitsoff, Engineering and Phil Hillman, Ohio Division of Wildlife-Fisheries, chat in the back-ground while Dianne Kolodziejski, Mosquito, and Tom Maier, Environmental, pose for this photo during a site visit at Mosquito Creek Lake for the Great Lakes & Mississippi River InterbasinStudy, in the spring of 2011. (Photo by Mike Baker, Buf-falo District)

Josh Bridge (right), Conemaugh Lake, provides support to one of the attendees at the Allegheny Sport and Outdoor Show held Feb. 5-19. Project staff members from Conemaugh, Loyalhanna, Crooked Creek and Mahoning Lakes participated in the annual outdoor show and made more than 2,000 contacts. (Photo by Mike Setlock, Loyalhanna)

On Feb. 27, a training exercise was held at New Cumberland Locks and Dam for the local fire department. The exercise, which lasted about an hour, in-cluded landing the STAT MedEvac helicopter on the lock wall. (Photo by Willie Maynard, New Cumberland)

Above: The Trout Island Tromp was held Feb. 18, in Hermit-age, Pa. Forty-four runners took part in the 5K race sponsored by the Mercer County Trails Association. Runners used the recently reopened Trout Island Trail, which follows alongside the Shenango River and lake near the dam. (Photo by Eric Schreckengost, Shenango) Since early January numerous bald eagles have been spotted at Loyalhanna Dam including two during the recent annual survey. (Photo by Mike Setlock, Loyalhanna).