Salmon Watch Field Trips Week #2 (2016)

Salmon Watch 2016-17 continued this week with five more field trips!

Much thanks to the four schools that participated this week, along with our dedicated Salmon Watch teachers and volunteer educators. This week, volunteers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, Johnson Creek Watershed Council (and more!) passed along their knowledge and shared experiences in nature with students.

Monday, September 26th: Portland Waldorf School at the Salmon River

Tuesday, September 27: Gresham High School at the Zigzag River

Tuesday, September 27: Winterhaven K-8 at the Salmon River

Thursday, September 29: Centennial High School at the Salmon River

Friday September 30: Centennial High School at the Salmon River

This week concluded our field trips at the Salmon River, and our trips at the Zigzag River are winding down with just two more next week. With the start of October, we’ll begin field trips at the Little White Salmon River, Eagle Creek, and we’ll have one trip on the Lewis River.

Photos taken by volunteers and chaperones are rolling in. The photos in this article feature a fish dissection by Josie Thompson with the Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, from last Friday’s trip with Grant High School.

Another dissection was done by volunteer educator Chris Toole, a retired NOAA fisheries biologist, on Tuesday with Gresham High School. Chris said, “Most of the kids were fascinated by the anatomy and some even took pictures. And we did have fish over the same redd as on Friday as well as a second redd just upstream…Also, unknown to me, ODFW emptied the trap while we were out there and explained what they were doing for the students at the stations closest to the trap…It was interesting because at our station we could tell that something had happened because all of a sudden there were these fish just racing upstream and then back down.”

Salmon Watch continues next week with more experiential encounters with Pacific salmon like these!