Hood River News (reprint)
June 12, 2015
Article and photo by Kirby Neumann-Rea
Biology teacher Joe Kelly provides instruction to sophomore Bianca Maciel on removing knapweed from the opposite side of the trail as community members hike past. The whole idea behind riparian enhancement is “cleaner, colder water” for salmon, according to Kelly, who also believes that in doing the projects, students learn the power of taking action. A side project is removal of scotch broom, with the goal of eradication of the species from the entire HRVHS campus.
Cleaning out your desk in the final days of school is one thing.
How about cleaning out a riparian zone?
That’s what a group of about 20 Hood River Valley High School students did Wednesday morning along the Indian Creek streambed just below Henderson Stadium.
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Guided by biology teacher Joe Kelly, the students wielded loppers, adzes and other cutting tools, to cut or pull invasive species — knapweed, canary grass, scotch broom and blackberries — and got the ground ready for “solarization” this summer. The scene is where Indian Creek Trail comes out into an open area known as Emily’s Grove, named for AmeriCorps volunteer Emily Plummer, who planted and carried water in 2007-08 to sustain newly planted trees and shrubs.
Solarization involves stripping away vegetation, chopping up the soil, and covering it in plastic for a few months to superheat it and kill the canary grass root system. Then, in the fall, new and welcome plantings will go in the same place along the creek: Ponderosa pine, Pacific nine-bark dogwood, cedars, red osier, or mock orange. These tall shrub and tree species will develop into a two-tier canopy system that shades the creek to lower the water temperature, as well as increase dissolved oxygen in the water, two key components of water quality and improving salmon habitat.
We are trying to encourage some species and get rid of others, and provide dense shade over the creek,” Kelly explained. The work has a lengthy scope: once the invasive species are quelled on the west side of the trail along the stream, it will take them a few years to mature into the kind of canopy the stream needs. Meanwhile, the pines and other trees planted on the east side of the trail will need 20 years or so to fully mature.
The project is a continuation of streambed enhancement work in recent years by students taught by Kelly and Pete Lawson, done as class projects or in conjunction with other Indian Creek Steward partners. On hand were Honors Ecology students fulfilling their community service component under the ongoing Salmon Watch curriculum program; Horizon Christian students have worked with the Stewards on a similar project farther north next to the community college campus. On Wednesday, the students also removed another invasive element: plenty of human-deposited trash.
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