This Earth Day 2017, Steven Jones’ biology and environmental science students at Hudson’s Bay High School had the chance to give back to their community and watershed by helping to rebuild the riparian area around Salmon Creek in Vancouver, WA.
On a drizzly Saturday morning, they ventured out to Salmon Creek Greenway and planted a variety of native trees as part of Clark Public Utilities’ Annual StreamTeam Earth Day Fest.
Tommy Miller, a StreamTeam volunteer for five years, explained, “As trees grow, they provide a number of things. Shade is one of the first and foremost. They act as filters for water quality. And as they grow up and age out and end up falling over and dying, they provide wood and nutrients to the stream. All those three things are very important to salmon.”
Steven Jones’ high school students had the opportunity to learn about the importance of healthy riparian areas on their Salmon Watch field trip to Daybreak Park in October 2016. One of the four Salmon Watch stations is Riparian Zone Observation. In this station, students learn to observe the riparian area and look for clues regarding stream health. The presence of shade trees to keep water cool for salmon is one of the key features of a healthy riparian area.
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Steven Jones emphasized the importance of outdoor education opportunities provided by Salmon Watch. “It’s not easy to find funding and organize field trips, so we’re stuck in the classroom all the time talking about the outside world, and Salmon Watch allows us to get out there. It’s gives us the funding and all the organization to get my class out there, and they love it. Even though we live in the beautiful, great Northwest, there’s a lot of families that don’t get to get out and they barely ever come outside to a wild, running river like this with salmon.”
Getting outdoors and experiencing science in the field also inspires students to pursue careers related to protecting the environment, and instills an ethic of environmental stewardship.
Bear, biology student at Hudson’s Bay, shared her aspirations of becoming a scientist. “I’m actually planning on being in the science field, and I like looking at the different sciences. And I like biology, so I might actually get a job that might help the environment and figure out what can we do to help salmon come to Salmon Creek more often and what can we do with the trees…And I’m pretty sure I’m going to be coming back next year for volunteer work because it’s so much fun.”
Check out this short video featuring Hudson’s Bay High School’s Salmon Watch Project!
You can sign up to become a Salmon Watch Volunteer Educator and help inspire students like Bear to become lifelong stewards. Fill out our Volunteer Application today!
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