TROY – The Wiregrass Resource, Conservation and Development Council presented a $5,000 check to Troy University Monday as part of a grant that helped study stream conditions in the Choctawhatchee Watershed.

Sen. Wendell Mitchell (D-Luverne) said the money could have gone to anyone, but “anytime I have an opportunity to support Troy University and its students, that’s what I do.”

Mitchell said the project, a study ultimately commissioned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency, was an example of how TROY students and faculty work toward the betterment of the state.

Graduate student Patrick Witmer, of Enterprise, who graduated in July, conducted the study entitled “Indexing Stream Road Crossing Conditions in the Choctawhatchee Watershed Pre-Implementation Rankings.” TROY Eminent Scholar in Agriculture and Management Dr. Paul Michael Stewart, served as Witmer’s faculty advisor for the research project.

“With work such as Mr. Witmer’s, the Choctawhatchee is becoming one of the best studied watersheds in the state,” he said.

Witmer’s objective, said Kelly Kuyl, a Wiregrass Resource, Conservation and Development Council representative, was to inspect at dirt-road stream crossings and make recommendations to landowners about how to control erosion and stream particulates.

The entire Wiregrass RCDC grant to the University was $20,000.

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Troy University’s Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences received a $5,000 grant from the Wiregrass Resource, Conservation and Development Council to help pay costs associated with a study conducted by TROY graduate Patrick Witmer. Pictured are, from left to right, Judy Enfinger, director of sponsored programs at TROY, State Sen. Wendell Mitchell, Dr. Michael Stewart, Witmer’s faculty advisor on the research project, and WRCDC representatives Kelly Kuyl and Randy Martin.