Healthy Waters Institute E-Newsletter Fall 2007
Bear Creek Watershed Update
Johnson Creek Watershed Update
Marys River Watershed Update
Upper Deschutes Watershed Update
Thank you to the 122 teachers, 327 volunteers, 4934 students, 56 partners, 79 schools, parents, drivers, staff and salmon for a fantastic fifteenth year of Salmon Watch! Thanks to a collective 3965 hours of volunteer support, students from southern Oregon to the Cascades learned a little something about salmon and the intricate connections found in our ecosystems. I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved in Salmon Watch for making this program an experience to remember! We look forward to another successful year in 2008.
Be on the lookout for transportation reimbursement changes to Salmon Watch in 2008. The State Department of Education reimburses schools 70% for instructional field trips through their transportation fund. Oregon Trout will be modifying our reimbursement rate to 30% for field trips. In order to take advantage of the 70% reimbursement from the state, districts will need to calculate and report the total mileage for reimbursement and submit it to the DOE at the end of the fiscal year (July). Reimbursements are sent out the following spring. Please speak with your finance department, bookkeepers, teachers and transportation departments to adequately plan for accommodating this change. Let us know if you have questions and we would be happy to connect you with someone who can help!
Bear Creek Watershed Update
Rogue Valley and Coos Bay Salmon Watch 2007 has flowed successfully past and in Bear Creek we are looking forward to a creative winter. Call our office at 773-1039 if you’d like support finding and implementing service learning projects or independent projects for your class or individual students at any grade level! We can help!
Watch your email for booking notices for 1000 Drops School Grounds Programs and Riparian Outdoor School Programs in January 2008.
Don’t forget to send in student submissions for our healthy waters kids journal. Art work, creative writing, and ideas for activities are all welcome. Make sure Bear Creek is well represented in the next issue!
Susan Cross, Bear Creek Regional Education Coordinator
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Johnson Creek Watershed Update
Salmon Watch 2007 wrapped up in Mid-November as the days grow shorter and the winter rains settle in. We are privileged to have such great volunteers and teachers that continue to provide students with these powerful connections to the natural world.
This year students from Grant and David Douglas High schools began collecting base line data for several side channel restoration projects on the Salmon River. They will be conducting pre and post project monitoring starting Fall 2007. Research will include;
1. monitoring surface flow
2.
measuring salmonid presence and water quality
3.
identifying in-channel characteristics such as large wood and native plants
4.
quantifying suitable lamprey habitat
5.
mapping vegetation to identify invasive plants for removal
Also students will be involved in planting native vegetation after the contracted restoration work and ongoing removal of invasive plant species.
Further, these students have the opportunity to explore potential career paths. Job descriptions range from project manager, to communications specialist, entomologist to photographer and many things in between. We realize that stewardship and restoration depend not only on science and manual labor but on connection of spirit with the natural world. This dynamic project offers students and teachers the chance to participate in an environmentally significant long term project as well as share in an especially valuable experience.
Healthy Waters Institute offers grants to teachers and students for a wide range of river related projects. More information can be found at www.healthywatersinstitute.org
Mary Ann Schmidt, Johnson Creek Regional Education Coordinator
Marys River Watershed Update
During Fall of 2007, 26 schools participated in 61 Salmon Watch trips in the Mid-Willamette Valley ranging as far north as the North Santiam to as far south as the McKenzie and Siuslaw Rivers. During the November trips, many groups were waiting for rain to bring the Chinook runs upstream. High School teacher, Tim Whitley from Churchill High School, decided to side-step low water levels, taking his students to Odell Lake in the Cascade Mountains. Located in the Willamette National Forest, this lake has a healthy population of kokanee averaging 10 to 13 inches long. Trapper Creek was the destination of choice, bald eagles flying up and down it’s meandering channel as the resident landlocked descendents of anadromous ocean going Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) located locations for their redds. John Femal from Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) commented on the difficulty of finding a workable spot for macroinvertebrete collection, due to the abundance of redds. The Regional Education Coordinators Kim Carson and Jaime Greydanus enjoyed meeting and working with a great group of dedicated teachers and volunteers at all of the Mid-Valley sites.
Oregon Trout’s Streambank program comes to the Marys River Watershed as Corvallis High School students plant a variety of riparian trees and shrubs in an area recently cleared of invasive Himalayan blackberries. The student on the left (see photo above) is Charlotte Fisher and the student on the right is Melar Chen.
Kim Carson, Marys River Regional Education Coordinator
Upper Deschutes Watershed Update
The Healthy Waters Institute had an exciting and colorful fall in the Upper Deschutes. In addition to the beautiful autumn colors and warm weather, the teachers and students working with HWI saw red! The red of spawning kokanee that is! Thanks to the timely return of kokanee to the Metolius River, we had our most exciting Salmon Watch year ever. Students from Pilot Butte Middle School, Mountain View High, Sisters High, REALMS, and Sisters Middle School were thrilled to witness abundant numbers of spawning salmon. According to Carol Packard, a teacher from Sisters Middle School who has participated in Salmon Watch for 6 years, “This was the best Salmon Watch year ever. I think that the volunteers were better prepared and more enthusiastic than I have ever seen. My students came away both inspired and informed.”
In addition to the autumnal red of spawning salmon, the Healthy Waters Institute added more fall color to the Upper Deschutes. 230 local students helped to restore much-needed riparian vegetation to the degraded stream banks of the Deschutes River at the new riverside Riverbend Park. All of the 2,500 riparian plants were planted by students from Buckingham Elementary, Pilot Butte Middle School, Cascades Academy, Bend High, and REALMS. After the plants were in the ground and the shovels were put away, the students from Pilot Butte Middle School had a lot to say about their experience. "It was awesome, but hard," exclaimed 6th grader Tabi Dooms. "It was the funnest field trip I've ever been on and it was helping out Bend," states Shavon Provencio. And, Nic Kavanaugh told his teacher Molly Grove that, "It was a great experience being able to plant so many different trees, and I can't wait to go back when I'm older and say I planted those trees!” Click here to read more about the Riverbend Restoration Project.
Kolleen Yake, Upper Deschutes Regional Education Coordinator
Healthy Waters Institute . 65 SW Yamhill Street . Suite 300 . Porltand OR 97204 . 503.222.9091