During 2015, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute launched its Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors program employing six high school students and two college aged students. Throughout the course of the summer months, the PWA students worked alongside RTPI conservation staff to evaluate the Chadakoin River Corridor in the City of Jamestown. This urban river was found to be recovering from its long history of factory pollutants, channelization and overuse. It hosts a variety of flora and fauna including some that are quite rare within the state of New York. Species such as the Spiny Softshell Turtle demonstrate the health of the river and produce an optimistic viewpoint of this once “dirty” waterway.