Growing the Next Generation of Watershed Stewards

Swan Field Trip

2011-10-07T12:28:00.000-06:00

This last Tuesday, Kitty and I headed up to the Swan Valleyin the early morning. We sleepily arrived and set up for the field trip andwaited for the kids to arrive. As the students rolled out of the bus, their enthusiasmfor the field trip was contagious. This group of students had been going out onour WEN field trips every spring and fall since they were in 3^rdgrade, and were excited to learn more and build upon what they had alreadylearned in the previous years. At the bug station, students excitedly ran overto me, eyeing the waders already. As we talked about the different kinds ofaquatic macroinvertebrates in the river, I was surprised by how much the olderstudents remembered. Finally, the students were able to get into the waders andcollect the macroinvertebrates in the river. We found so many mayflys! We alsofound a couple of ‘mystery bugs’ that the students we able to identify throughour dichotomous key. As they proudly told me what each bug was named, I wasreminded that no matter how much we think we may know about something, we canalways learn something new.

Science In The Name of Fun

2011-09-27T12:29:00.000-06:00

Volunteer Coordinator Will Ridlehoover braves the clark fork in the name of science!

Adversity often inspires ingenuity. At least it did with Will and I on the Clark Fork last Sunday.
Our weekly Stream Team outing focused on a section of the river just down-stream from the Madison Street bridge, and as with any wide river, the physical attributes of the Clark Fork presented certain challenges for data collection that had to be overcome.

The Stream Team typically examines three major characteristics of the river. Chemical, biological and physical attributes are measured in order to give us an accurate picture as to the character and health of the river. The physical examination is comprised of factors such as water velocity, bank width, water depth and overall morphology or the "shape" of that river's section. All factors are easy to measure in small streams, but a several hundred foot wide river presents a few challenges of equipment and logistics. Luckily, Will and I were feeling particularly industrious that day, and he had some swimming trunks in his car.

Typically the river's depth and width area easily measured with a depth pole and survey line respectively, but the fast moving and especially deep water combined with the extremely wide section we chose to measure made our typical methods impractical. So with a few handfuls of rocks inside of the nylon bag of a throw rope and the use of a sharpie I fashioned a makeshift depth gauge inspired by my youth on the Mississippi river and the endless reminders of how Samuel Clemens chose his famous pseudonym. In the mean time, Will paddled his way across the river with the aid of an inner-tube to fix a static line to the opposite bank and returned to begin the measurement process. Using the static line to hold his position in the river, Will worked his way across and dropped our makeshift depth gauge every "tube width" (3 foot 2 inches) and sounded off a reading to be recorded on shore. Sixty five readings later, we determined the width to be no less than 205.83 feet across and an average depth of around 3.5 feet.

While this data was useful and important to record for many reasons that any WEN volunteer can explain, the process of collecting it was important for some reasons you may not expect. Namely, it was hilarious. As Will worked his way slowly across the clark fork, the rest of the team recorded the data and chuckled at the increasingly louder depth reports echoing across the water, and the impressed expressions upon the faces of passers by. We always have fun on Stream Team, but when afforded the opportunity to innovate, be bold, and a little bit silly with like minded folks on the banks of a neighborhood river the experience becomes that much more powerful and rewarding. I can't wait for next week, maybe we'll find a way to build a submarine from Tupperware containers and driftwood.

--
Clinton Begley
OfficeCoordinator
Watershed Education Network

Our Favorite Photos

2011-09-22T11:58:00.002-06:00

The photo is one of my favorites. At no more than 5 years old, clad in blue corduroys and a striped red shirt, I stand off balance on the rocky shore and focus on counting the skips my carefully selected stone makes across the river. Just one skip. Behind me, on an upside down bucket, sits my grandpa. With suspenders on, and aluminum can in hand, he counts along with me. I'm fond of the photo for many reasons, but recently I was reminded how much it is simply a great capture of how lucky I was so grow up spending time at the river.

Missouri's North River | 1986

The reminder came this week when a kindergartner, spoon in hand over a plastic tub crawling with aquatic macroinvertebrates fresh from the Clark Fork asked me: "how did we get so many crawdads in here?" The question was a perfectly rational question to ask. It is the fact that I had the responsibility and privilege of answering it that made me realize just how important the roles of WEN educators really are. And, in the absence of an organization like WEN in my home town, how lucky I was to have that role filled by my family when I was a kid.

Growing up with a small river flowing through our family farm, and the great Mississippi charging south just a dozen blocks away from our house in town I had no shortage of opportunities to experience a river. But most importantly, my family was always there to introduce me to those opportunities, the fun of the river, and it's significance. But not every kid is as lucky as I was, and the opportunities in our own back yards mean nothing without guidance and introduction from thoughtful families, friends and community organizations.

Clark Fork River | This Week

We had a dozen or so pairs of wide eyes, and highly raised hands at Clark Fork this week. But most importantly we had a dozen or so smiles as the four and five year old's caught and counted mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies on the bank of an important river in their own back yard. Because while the youngsters may not retain the exact reason that these creatures are important to their ecosystem, they will certainly remember why the ecosystem was important to them on that warm September morning at the river.

---
By Clinton Begley
Office Coordinator
Watershed Education Network

Bitterroot River Field Trip

2011-09-19T13:53:00.000-06:00

Last week, WEN had a great time leading students from C.S. Porter to the Bitterroot River. We taught them all about the biological, physical, and chemical aspects of their nearby river. Take a look at the day through this video courtesy of Clinton Begley!

Miller Creek Field Trip

2011-09-15T11:24:00.000-06:00

Ever wonder what it is like to be at the river with WEN? Now you can feel like you are at the river's edge with us by watching this great video by WEN's AmeriCorps member Clinton Begley.

Miller Creek Field Trip

Liam Wood Fly Fishers and River Guardians

2011-08-29T14:43:00.001-06:00

WEN has created a new crop of fly fishers and river guardians!

Everyday from August 15th to 19th, WEN had the opportunity to teach high school students more about river stewardship through the social lens of fly fishing. It was great to see them in one week learn about the responsibility that comes with fly fishing to protect and care for our local rivers. At the end of the week I noticed a huge change in their attitudes compared to the beginning of the week. I also felt like I learned so much as the week went on; it is amazing what can happen in one week!

My favorite moment of the week: the students peacefully fly fishing at the Bitterroot River on the last afternoon

River Poems

2011-07-26T08:57:00.002-06:00

In the past two weeks, WEN taught a Words with Wings summer camp session where students learned about the history of the Clark Fork River. Then they reflected on what they had learned and wrote some wonderful poems! Read some selections below:


Kitty Galloway, WEN's program coordinator (left) and Lynne Dickman (middle) from Ice Age Flood Institute teach river history to Sheryl Noethe (right) and the Words with Wings students

Bret Lunder

WHAT DOES A RIVER MEAN?

What does a river mean to me?

A river means life for fish, water

for ground, food for humans.

A river is what keeps the food chain

flowing.

Rivers are what give earth its beauty,

its light, its refreshment.

A river is the home for fish, otters,

snails, beavers, many animals.

Without the rivers, the earth would be

dry. Without rivers, there would be no way

for the osprey to find food, no way for beavers

to build their dam, no way for fish to swim.

Earth would be a dry ball of dirt, no grass,

no fish.

Life—that is what a river means to me

and to you.

Shelby Kinch

TETRACTY: THE RIVER

Clear

water

rushing on

bathing in the

warm sun, a home for glittering scales and

shimmering fins, a place for smoothed rocks.

The river with

the power

of a

horse

strong,

happy

to be free

dipping between

rocks, it gently swirls through time, welcoming.

On and on it flows until the sting of

salt burns its eyes.

Peace at last

ocean

home.

KoesslerTolleson Knee

FLY POLE

Invisibility itself whips through the air

welded to a fly that is happy when bitten.

Green cord with a mind of its own

hooks onto invisibility’s tail

for a better view

of the monster with gills and fins

that might be dinner.

Fiberglass trees committed for life

to helping the fly and its procession

married to it by silver rings.

When the wheel stops turning

all wait

for a fish to fall

for the bait.

Meredith Walker

ODE TO THE CLARK FORK

On and on

rushing

on and on

splashing

on and on.

There is a river of power

that runs through Missoula.

Clark Fork is its name.

Home of the trout,

home of the waves,

home of the hearts

of its people.

Kayaking waves, so fun,

mostly manmade

but rapids required.

Cool and favorite haunt of dogs.

Peace, power,

and driftwood logs.

Origin of noise,

it always bustles.

Sandy, buggy, beaches.

Birds call, rushes rustle.

Preserved exoskeletons

and rocks galore,

waves lap against the shore

always changing more.

Boy Scouts at SKC!

2011-07-25T10:35:00.002-06:00

This past WEN led the Boy Scouts on an adventure to learn about aquatic macroinvertebrates around Salish Kootenai College. Check out our pictures!

Huston Thompson and Deb Fassncacht led the aquatic
macroinvertebrate station

Students play the Macroinvertebrate Mayham game

Students learn how their bug should move as a part of the
Macroinvertebrate Mayham game

Huston Thompson catches some Aquatic Macroinvertebrates

WEN heads to Victor School to teach about Groundwater

2011-06-15T14:57:00.000-06:00

Like others before it, the early morning began with coffee. I sipped it slowly as we loaded the car. We had a large plastic model town called an Enviroscape, a groundwater flow model, and equipment to help 30 6th grades at Victor School build their own aquifer. Kitty, the Program director, and Hillary, WEN's summer VISTA and I hopped in the car and headed south into the Bitteroot Valley. We arrive in the small town of Victor with early, but circled a few blocks before we finally stopped at a gas station to ask for directions to the school. We pulled up and signed in, admiring the class photos dating back to 1927 on the walls. When we entered the classroom the happy teacher greeted us and we started setting up. The build your own aquifer activity was engaging. Students first tested how much water moved through one of the 4 substrates they had samples of : sand, gravel, dirt and clay. Then they took three of those substrates and made their own aquifer.

We then cleaned up the aquifer and set-up two stations: the groundwater flow model and Enviroscape. I lead the plastic Enviroscape town station while Kitty lead the groundwater flow model and Hillary took pictures. I was a bit apprehensive because it was almost summer and these kids were antsy. I started by introducing the town and talking about 4 types of pollution represented by the acronym ANTS: air, nutrient, toxic, and sediment pollution. Then I directed their attention to the plastic farm and asked why farms are good. The kids immediately started talking about pollution and I realized they hadn't been paying attention. I asked who knew someone who was a farmer and almost all the kids raised their hands. Then I asked again why farms are good. "Food!" shouted one student. "Yes food is very important and all food comes from farms" Then I asked, "What kind of pollution would you find on the farm?" The kids thought for a minute then one kid raised his hand and suggested smoke from the tractor. "Yes," I said reaching into a Ziploc bag I had hidden behind the Enviroscape. I pulled out a bottle of bubbles and asked, "who wants to show us air pollution?" Ten hands shot up in the air. I chose a student and watched as bubbles floated and landed all over the town. The students went on to talk about the benefits of suburbs, logging, factories and trucks. Then they guessed almost every type of pollution. They poured chocolate syrup on the road to represent someone pouring out oil, sprinkled chocolate chip dog poo, spread hot coco powder sediment and Kool-aid powder pesticides. Then I gave two students squirt bottles and the Enviroscape town had a rain storm. Exclamations of disgust rose from the students as dark, murky water flowed down the streams and into the lake. Then I discussed ways people and governments avoid these kinds of pollution through berms, fencing off cattle and other preventative measures.

When it came time to circle up Kitty asked what the students remembered from the field trip I was a bit nervous. They were obviously distracted by the proximity of summer break and I questioned how much they had learned. To my surprise many hands shot up in the air and they began talking about key points about aquifers, groundwater, and the Enviroscape lesson. They remembered that they should recycle oil and not pour it down a drain, and that you shouldn't let your dog poop in the river. I smiled. To hear those kids talk about what they'd learned I knew our lessons were not something they would soon forget. I sipped my last bit of coffee and felt energized, not from the coffee, but from the knowledge that we had made a difference in these students' lives.

WEN is now offering summer day camps!

2011-05-16T11:06:00.002-06:00

The Watershed Education Network is excited to announce that we are now offering summer day camps!

River Explorers (ages 8-14): June 20-24 (M-F) 1-5 pm $150

Does your child enjoy creative time outside? During this camp, we will spend the week exploring Missoula’s riverside environments. Activities will include guided observations, field journaling, storytelling, art activities and rich river science topics.

Watershed Scientists (ages 8-14): July 18-22 (M-F) 1-5 pm $150

This camp is a great stepping stone for all you future field scientists! We will spend the week taking a closer look at the health of our own local watershed. Activities will include in depth water chemistry, aquatic macroinvertebrate (bug) studies, exploration of riparian ecosystems, and more. Students will get to create their own river field science notebook.

For more information or to reserve your spot, contact Kitty Galloway at 541-9287 or water@montanawatershed.org

If these weeks don’t work but you’re still interested, if you have a group of 7+ kids excited about water, or if you have a young river explorer, age 5-8, who wants to learn more about water this summer, please contact us at the WEN office! We may be scheduling additional weeks for more children or younger ages, pending interest.

We hope to see you on the river this summer!

Have you noticed something different about the Prairie?

2011-05-13T11:06:00.001-06:00

Sussex School is working hard at the John Pierce Native Plant Prairie! This past Wednesday they continued weeding the area of invasives and began planting native plants. Come by and see the progress they have made in between the WEN office and the river trail!

For more information about the Sussex School project or WEN's week curriculum, call 541-9287 or email water@montanawatershed.org

3rd Annual Mayfly Fling

2011-05-05T12:57:00.000-06:00

WEN's 3rd Annual Mayfly Fling was great! We had so many hard workers who helped put on this annual fundraiser, and it was so great to see all of the community support that WEN has gathered over the years. So many businesses contributed through sponsorships and donations. These contributions, along with the people who attended, will provide much needed funding for WEN's spring and summer watershed education programs. And it was such a fun event on a warm spring day!

WEN depends on generous community donors! For more information about how you can help sustain our watershed education programs contact Deb Fassnacht, Executive Director at 541-9287 or water@montanawatershed.org

Earth Day with MUD!

2011-04-22T12:18:00.000-06:00

This past week, WEN joined MUD's Earth Day along with other environmental groups in Missoula. Even though it was a chilly day, lots of people showed up and many kids were instantly attracted to our tub of aquatic macro-invertebrates that we had gathered from the Clark Fork River. Earth Week is a perfect time to learn more about your local watershed! Check out the pictures from MUD's Earth Day below.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Sussex School Adopts John Pierce Native Prarie

2011-03-31T11:53:00.001-06:00

Rivers and Plants go together!

This past Wednesday, Pam and Lisa's class came to explore, observe and document the first signs of spring and new life in the Pierce Native Prairie. Throughout the spring the class will return to this prairie to help restore it to its natural state. While developing this stewardship, they will also learn a lot about native and invasive plants!

Watch for more plant activities this spring with Sussex School and the Pierce Native Prairie!

Spring Trainings

2011-03-28T10:55:00.001-06:00

Its Spring Training time! To kick off the Spring field trip season, Kitty and Alaina led a training to teach community members and future volunteers about how to monitor rivers and why it is important. At the training we went through all three stations, and even got to get in the river with our waders! The first station was our chemistry station, where we measured the oxygen, temperature, and pH level. Next up we discussed the physical aspects of Rattlesnake creek. Lastly we got to scoop up some aquatic macro invertebrates and identify them. In our sample we even found a worm! Even though it was a little rainy, it was a great way to get excited for the upcoming season of monitoring our local Montana rivers!

Kicking up the aquatic macro invertebrates

Identifying the macro invertebrates
at the biological station

At the physical station, volunteers
gather bankful measurements

Rattlesnake School Groundwater Presentation

2011-03-11T12:04:00.001-07:00

This past week WEN did 4 groundwater presentations at Rattlesnake School! We taught two different classes in two-part presentations. The first field trip we led an interactive experiment where the students built their own aquifer and explored how water moved through different kinds of sediments. Next, we played the Groundwater Game so the students could see what it was like to be a raindrop moving through the ground (and get out some energy!). The second day was a presentation of our Groundwater Flow Model which is continually fascinating to both the students and adults. Check out the pictures below!

Students get ready for the Groundwater Game

Students write about their aquifer experiment

Students watch the water filter through
their aquifers they built

Students build their aquifer with WEN volunteer

For more information about our Groundwater Program, volunteer on a field trip, or schedule a field trip for your classroom, call 541-9287 or email us at water@montanawatershed.org

Upcoming events at WEN

2011-02-25T11:22:00.002-07:00

Check out what's happening at WEN!

The WEN Team Celebrates 15 Years of Watershed Education!

2011-02-18T11:58:00.001-07:00

As we turn of the calendar see 2011 - it means a staggering 15 years since Watershed Education Network’s co-founders, me (Deb Fassnacht) and Wendy Sturgis decided to bring citizen-based volunteer water monitoring to western Montana. Wendy said the fateful words as we formed a board eight years later in 2004, “…it will take about 15 years to get this to be a real nonprofit”. In the meantime, WEN, he 501 (c) 3 has seen a steady increase in the demand for our School Stream Monitoring Program (SSMP) and each of our stellar program coordinators have brought advancements to the program with their expertise and perspectives on rivers. The program coordinators that have moved on to bigger and better things include: Greg Grallo (1997-2002); Sean Sullivan (2000-2007); and Josh Gubits (2007-2011). In this time WEN has grown in our programs: pre-K focus,, wetlands, groundwater, Milltown Dam Journeys, high school Flagship after school, and summer Liam Wood Flyfishers and River Guardians offerings to get kids out to their creeks.

We warmly welcome Kitty Galloway from Bellingham, Washington as our new program coordinator, She brings her gifts of science education and curriculum building to WEN, along with a great personality. Underlying the water education progress and our ever-evolving process is a key element that isn’t always made explicit. WEN has an incredible team of people. The team of people has been rich in dynamic personalities, age, profession, and background. In the beginning, our team of volunteers included our children, Max and Ben Fassnacht and Wendy’s daughter, Kate Moo
re. We graduated to recruiting community volunteers and University of Montana students. Some are so much a part of the WEN trainings, field trips and Stream Team, they often go unrecognized beyond the twice a year volunteer appreciation party and BBQ.

Yesterday I was reminded of this fifteen year run of attracting talented, thoughtful people to be a part of a very program: ‘we are growing the next generation of watershed stewards’ . Three volunteers came to the WEN office to get a groundwater flow model ready, Vija Pelekis, Erica Thye, our MTCC VISTA Member, and Vicki Balfour, our Board member. We took care of all the last minute preparations, printing flyers and handouts, packing a ‘build your aquifer lesson’ set of supplies and remembering our new, poster showcasing WEN. Our board member, Vicki Balfour came to provide moral support and leadership. As I watched the packing and preparing, I realized how fortunate I am to work with such incredible team of people. What a gift, to have volunteers that show up on time, with smiles asking, “What’s next”?

As we headed out to make a presentation and share our good work in the community, I was seeing the team through fresh eyes. People are kind to each other, give direction as needed, pick up where each other leaves off, and enjoys the time together doing good, meaningful work. Later after the adrenaline rush of a great presentation was wearing off, we talked over what we did well and what we can do to do an even better job of showcasing WEN’s amazing work. All these ideas and all the brainstorming, bringing new concepts, thoughtful suggestions, and organizational tips to be more efficient is how we have gotten WEN from an idea to where we are.

We look at a calendar already filling with class presentations and field trips. We are digging deep to ask who can become interns and work with more set priorities and schedules. We are expecting good things to come from all the energy, ideas and hard work of this spring, our fifteenth season! It is good to see the energy, enthusiasm and dedication to making water education thrive for students and people in Montana.

-Deb Fassnacht

Deb is the Executive Director and co-founder of WEN

Groundwater Field Trip Pictures

2011-02-11T10:06:00.001-07:00

Check out our pictures from our Groundwater Field Trip!

Deb presents the Groundwater Flow Model to fascinated students

Kitty Galloway explores groundwater layers with students

The Students get ready for the Groundwater Flow Game

Clay sticks close together!

The Groundwater experiment shows how
water moves through sediments

Do you want to learn more about your Groundwater Field Trips? You can email WEN at water@montanawatershed.org or call us at 406-541-9287

Groundwater Field Trip!

2011-02-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, I joined Deb, Erica, Kitty, and Stephanie at Garden City Montessori for WEN's ground water presentation. What a blast! The students were so engaged and enthusiastic to learn about ground water and Missoula's aquifer. I was happily surprised to see how knowledgeable the students already were about watersheds; one young student even described the movement of water through the landscape from rain to rivers and even included evaporation. Kitty Galloway coordinated some great activities for the kids including an interactive aquifer game. Students were designated as either boulders, sand, clay, or cobble and then the rest of the class acted as rain drops and moved through the different types of substrates as acted out by their classmates. Everyone loved the game and really understood how easy or difficult it is for water to move through different mediums in an aquifer.

After the interactive aquifer game and a wonderful build your own aquifer activity, Deb wowed the students with the groundwater flow model. Everyone, including myself, was completely immersed in the groundwater flow model. With this awesome tool, Deb showed the students at Garden City Montessori how water moves through aquifers and how groundwater contamination can pollute our rivers and drinking water. I thought the demonstration was particularly helpful to show how the composition of an aquifer will determine the movement of water. It was such a wonderful time for everyone! The kids were so engaged and eager to learn about their aquifer and their teacher, Megan, was involved and continued their groundwater lesson with our Groundwater Flow Model, even as we were leaving. At the end, we packed up and headed back to the WEN office with big smiles and the warm feeling you get from being around kids and their complete enthusiasm for the world around them- including watersheds!

-Vija Pelekis

WEN Volunteer

What's Happening at WEN?

2011-02-04T15:04:00.001-07:00

Check out what happened at WEN this past week through our Weekly Update!

Water Poems

2011-01-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

These poems were written during the Words with Wings with Missoula Writing Collaborative. These poems show how much students can understand about their local watershed!

Rushing Dwarf

In the middle I rush
twisting and turning, huge rapids tickle
rock after rock after rock. I
come from the mountains making crests
as I go, white water foam pooling up,
on the sides I break tiny waves calm
here you might dip your feet in the shallow
waters, while my rapids roam one way
shallow waves roam the other we're
connected, I am the river

-Camryn Cooper

Fish

Swimming down the stream is like
walking on a balance beam

Going at the wrong angle can get you
into the wrong river and you will miss
dinner.

You swim through the cold,
mucky, river finding your way home,
moving your tailbone
like mad working upstream to get to
a safe spot to sleep.

But you see an osprey so you hide
under the rocky floor of the river
and wait and wait until the osprey is gone.

You continue up stream until you see
a nice looking fly, but it looks like a hook
is attached, so you continue and finally find
a cave in which to sleep.

-Cody Carlson

Its Geography/Freshwater Awareness Week!

2010-11-19T13:22:00.001-07:00

Freshwater is an important resource! In honor of Geography and Freshwater Awareness Week, check out these water facts:

The Earth is 71% water. 97% of that water is in the ocean. That leaves only 3% as freshwater for all the plants, animals, and humans that use it.
98% of the Earth's freshwater is locked up in glaciers or deep within its crust. This means that less than 1% of all water is available for use
Aquifers are often mined faster than they can recharge
Water that is easily accessed is also easily polluted and requires extensive and expensive treatment before it can be used
The average amount of water a family in Asia and Africa uses in one day is a little less than 5 gallons. An individual in the United States uses an average of 100 gallons of water a day
In some regions in Asia and Africa, typically a woman in the family is responsible for walking to the nearest source of water and carrying it all back. The average distance she will have to walk and carry water is 3.7 miles a day

Water is a precious resource, lets take care of it!

Weed Field Trip!

2010-11-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesday afternoon, I biked along the river to meet up with WEN for the to go teach the fourth and fifth graders of Sussex Elementary School about invasive weeds, and native plants. Even though it was a rainy, gloomy day, we arrived at the greenhouse near Fort Missoula to a group of happy, energetic kids. Leah Grunzke, of the Montana Natural History Museum was already busy telling the kids all about weeds that are invasive in the Missoula area, and answering their questions.

After the students (who had decided to go by the name the Hilarious Hedgehogs-why not?) shared some great stories and observations about weeds, we all climbed on the little Sussex bus and went over to the Nature Adventure Teaching Garden to see a native plant garden in action.

The students had become familiar with most of the invasive plants that now make up the area around Missoula in our previous trip to the loading dock and path area near the Osprey field. There, the students had split into groups, and with the help of WEN’s plant expert, Jesse Dwyer, WEN’s director, Josh Gubits, a few of WEN’sother staff members and volunteers, and the student’s teacher, Pam Ward, the students all were assigned plants to seek out and identify. Once the students had spotted their plants, they had to sketch them, and describe aspects of the plant so that they could teach their fellow classmates all about it. After each group shared a bit of information about their assigned weed, they got to see some examples of aquatic invasive weeds and hear about the effects of these weeds and how they might be spread. This really was a great way to introduce the students to the idea of sustaining a natural garden in the high desert area that we live in, and why native plants are so important to keep around.

Back at the Nature Adventure Teaching Garden with Leah, the students got to better understand the benefits of a natural garden, from the reduced need of water, to the benefits for the wildlife in the area (especially birds). Leah now gave the “Hilarious Hedgehogs” their assignment, they were to explore the garden and find one plant that they thought was interesting that they could tell their classmates about. Immediately, some students ran up the small mound in the middle of the garden, some ran to the far end of the garden, and most ran to the giant hollow cotton tree that they had been anxiously eyeing since they first entered the garden. Five or ten minutes later, the group was called together, and some kids shared their favorite parts of the garden, and others shared what plants they found. One little girl in particular had found a Penstemon that was still in bloom!

The students climbed back onto the bus with a little more knowledge of the world around them, and it feels amazing to have been a small part of that. That’s why I can’t wait to return work with and learn alongside the Hilarious Hedgehogs of Sussex Elementary. Soon we’ll be hard at work on our own Native Plant Garden along the Clark Fork right in front of the WEN offices!

-Katie Foster

Katie Foster is a stellar WEN volunteer and a student at the University of Montana

Milltown Adventures

2010-11-05T16:06:00.001-06:00

What do you know about the site where Milltown Dam used to be?

This past week I learned a lot about the past and future restoration and rebuilding of the Milltown Dam site. We were fortunate enough to have Mike Kustudia, from Clark Fork River Technical Assistance Committee, to give us the most up-to date news on the site. The site is now being restored, and will be rebuilt into a State Park. It was very interesting to hear the whole story from an expert, and it was really fun to see how interested the 5th grade students were, as they had already learned some of the story from Deb's class visit.

Mike points out where the restoration process is taking place

After the talk with Mike, we split the students into two groups. The first activity was a geo-cash activity, which was very cool for the students because they were able to explore on their own and learn about how the different groups in the area were affected by the Dam. The second activity taught the kids about the long and hard journey that Bull Trout have to make in order to spawn. For a couple fun minutes, they turned into Bull Trout as they made their way through the obstacle course. They had to watch out for predators, environmental conditions, and turbines to make it safely to their redd where they could finally spawn. It was really fun to see how much the students learned by being active! I hope we get to do another Milltown Field trip soon!

Erica Thye
WEN Fall Intern

Bonner Students Make Friday Afternoon Fun for a Weary Volunteer

2010-10-24T12:31:00.000-06:00

Have you ever tried saying "blogging" ten times really fast? I don't blog, never done it before, don't know the criteria or restrictions but I gave it a whirl.

What happens when you mix a couple cups of water with an assortment of bugs and a batch of 6^th graders at 67ish degrees for 2 hours? A fabulous Bonner field trip! ….and that’s all it took to turn a stressful school week into a happy Friday. Who wants to sit in a library writing up reports when there is an opportunity to listen to a kid try to explain how gills work? As one Bonner student put it, “Fish breathe with gills in their neck – like lungs only with water.” Sure, but what happens when they find out that mayfly gills are not on their neck. “Whoa! You mean they breathe from their butt?!” Well, not exactly their butt. *review head, thorax, abdomen* Yes, the biological station is always filled with exceptional comments and critiques. At the end, which was their favorite bug – “Mayflies, they swim like mermaids” and what did they learn – “That there are a lot of different things living in the water.” And we saw plenty of diversity (yes, word of the day) in our samples: lots of stoneflies, mayflies, a few caddis flies, a crayfish, and a tiny fish about the size of your small finger. It always amazes me how much these kids learn and remember. I always like to ask them what they learned from the previous station(s) and they don’t even hesitate in answering and sometimes they beat me to the end of the question. "What is the veloc-"-"3.2 feet per second"! "And what about dissolved ox"-"10 drops"! How’s that for efficiency? They waste no time, especially if they see a pair of waders. But equally important in helping these amazing kids learn about the awesomeness of the stream monitoring. A big part of the fieldtrip success is WEN's awesomely awesome team with Josh and Molly and me! They made this field trip even more amazing, like the cherry on the top of an ice cream cone, or like finding a grumpy little someone in their little stone case! …and you all keep asking why I’m still volunteering.

That's all I got - I hope you have a fantastic weekend!
Al Pack

WEN Volunteer since 2007

Why Monitor Rivers?

2010-10-22T13:41:00.002-06:00

Because it is important to understand what is in our rivers and how they are changing! According to a recent Missoulain article, the Glacier Stonefly, is it risk of becoming endangered due to the effects of climate change!

Read it HERE

The Stonefly needs cold and clean water, so it is known as an indicator species in stream monitoring.

Heading Up the Blackfoot

2010-10-22T13:35:00.002-06:00

This past Sunday Stream Team had an amazing afternoon taking data on the Blackfoot River at the Angevine site. While our volunteers, Rob and Pam, started on chemistry, Maria, Steve and myself started setting up to gather stream flow data. The weather turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Standing along the Blackfoot, next to the cast of the mountain shadows, the sun lit up the water and made the scenery almost as pleasant as the warmth on my cheeks. I stood up on a rock to get a better view of the river, watching it curve with the mountain line, and could not have been more happy that I had gone out to do Stream Team that day.

Once we were done measuring stream velocity and dissolved oxygen, we were ready to start collecting insects! As the waders collapsed around the shape of my legs, the water actually felt good, cooling me off from the warm weather. After a couple of good collections we were ready to start sorting and identifying. We found numerous stoneflies and caddis. In fact, many of the stoneflies we found were the biggest I had ever seen, it was very exciting!

The river had a wide variety of insects and many healthy indicator species. The chemical and physical aspects of the stream also were in healthy conditions; we were very satisfied with the day. Our day was one of the best Stream Teams yet this year, and I highly suggest anyone interested to get involved, because otherwise you'll be missing out on great days such as this one!

Megan Girsch
WEN Autumn 2010 Intern

WEN in the News!

2010-10-13T11:13:00.000-06:00

The Ravalli Republic came to cover our field trip with Victor School yesterday. Check it out and learn more about us and the work we do in the field!

Watershed Education Network teaches Victor students keys to a healthy river system

Field Trips are for Adults too

2010-10-13T10:07:00.003-06:00

I’ve always liked field trips, ever since grade school. As an adult, I’ve looked for ways to continue learning outside of the class room and have my own field trip adventures.

My training for stream monitoring for the Watershed Education Network, (WEN) was such as adventure. I joined 20 or so other volunteers at Greenough Park on Rattlesnake Creek recently to learn the stations that are presented as part of WEN’s field trips. There are 3 parts, Biological, Chemical and Physical.

My favorite part of the whole activity, was the waders. I so rarely get to wear them and I dig any kind of special gear for a project, gloves, hard hats or waders. I put them on immediately after being given them and was reluctant to take them off. I was wearing them way before we went into the water.

The waders were needed in the biological station where we took nets and stood in the middle of the stream to kick up bugs. You do this by doing what amounts to “the twist.” You make sure to twist really deep into the river bed, stirring up lots of dirt and bugs that then flow downstream into you net that you have dug into the dirt down stream from you. You then take this net back to the table where you have buckets of stream water ready and you rinse out all the detritus from the bottom of the net. After all of this debris has settled, you take a plastic spoon and search for bugs. We found caddis flies, mayflies, and stoneflies. The purpose of this activity is to catch the bugs in order to count them, thus determining how healthy the river is. We put them into easily countable trays (individual section of ice cube trays) and then record them on the data sheet. The more variety of species, the healthier the river is. I loved having my nose right up to the bugs, the squirmy, long horse fly larvae and dark, solid bodies of stoneflies.

When we were done wit this station, we moved onto chemistry.

The last station was the physical station. We measured the river’s velocity, by clocking how long it took a tennis ball to travel down a measured section of the river. We also measured how far across the river was and how deep at foot width increments.

This was a great training and we have a great group of volunteers this year. Look for us, out there on the river.

-Erin Schmiel

Erin Schmiel has been a steller WEN volunteer and has recently become a WEN board member.

Why Volunteer?

2010-10-08T12:30:00.002-06:00

Although WEN teaches students, a lot of the time we end up learning just as much on field trips! Check out some of these quotes from past volunteers:

"It was more that I learned from the students. I liked seeing how they reacted to hands-on learning in their backyard. I had not expected to see the students so engaged."

"I have always been interested in watershed issues but maybe in a different context. WEN has helped me to better understand the education aspect which was something that I didn't know much about. I could read hundreds of books on watershed ecology and management - learn a lot and be happy with that, but nothing compares to getting out in the field and watching students enjoy learning about the same things that I do."

"It is important to know what is in the water (living and non-living) that we use everyday. It was cool to learn about what it takes to have a healthy river. There are so many components that go into keeping the streams ecology normal and balanced."

"Discovering the abundant life in the river has helped me to better appreciate the significance of watershed health as a part of ecosystem function on the large scale."

Become a part of WEN! Email us at water@montanawatershed.org

Trainings!

2010-10-05T11:35:00.004-06:00

At the beginning of every field season, we do a water monitoring training for our new volunteers and community members who want to learn more about their local rivers. This year we had 24 participants. Check it out!

Josh shows how to catch bugs to study

Dissolved oxygen from the chemistry station

Studying bugs

Adventures with Stream Team

2010-10-04T15:27:00.001-06:00

Our Stream Team has an awesome time this past Sunday! It was a beautiful day for monitoring our local rivers. This fall, our Stream Team will be monitoring a different river every Sunday afternoon.

Discovering a Treasure with Swan Valley School

2010-09-30T15:29:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

This late September morning we were very excited to take Swan Valley School out to Glacier Creek. The morning started bright and early for the long drive out, and we could tell it was going to be a great morning. Maddie, Josh, and I were very excited not only for the scenic drive ahead (which I later loved, especially passing Salmon Lake), but to be with the kids at such a great location. I have to say, once we reached the dirt road that extended deeper into the forest, I was getting quite excited.

After an almost two-hour drive, we arrived at the stream, parking beside an old rusty bridge, with the river flowing swiftly below. At first, I was a little worried when few students showed up in jackets, but the weather turned out to be just perfect, it wasn’t hot or cold, and the sun was there keeping everyone chipper and toasty. The kids were unbelievably great, very eager to learn and participate. The groups at each of the stations were a mixture of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders and they worked so well together—the older students took on leadership roles, helping the younger students and I think it was really beneficial for the group as a whole.

It was my first time running the physical station and it was a lot of fun! It was really helpful to have both, Maddie and myself, keeping the students interactive and listening at each end of the velocity station. The kids had a blast throwing the sticks in the water, and I’m pretty sure it was starting to turn into a competition of who could throw the hardest and farthest. Once all of our data was collected, the high number of positive indicating insects collected, combined with our high oxygen content and pristine clear, cold water, we knew Glacier Creek was a promising supply to the Swan River.

The trip ended at the school, where Josh gave a wonderful presentation to the 4th grade classroom about what makes a healthy stream, including what types of conditions are ideal for our native trout populations. The students were then allowed to ask questions, and the only question was directed toward Josh, asking, “do you like healthy foods?” Confused, Josh replied with a “yes” and the student told him, “because Lunchables are 100% healthy!” The students then filed out of the room to the cafeteria, where they would be treated to their much anticipated lunch after a long morning as watershed scientists.

—Megan Girsch
WEN Fall UM Intern
Wildlife Biology

Adventures with C.S. Porter Middle School

2010-09-24T13:18:00.002-06:00

Hello Everybody!
We had a great turnout at our C.S. Porter field trip this past Tuesday. Attending the trip was Tom, Garreth, Maddie, Stephannie, Josh, David, and myself. Our usual biological, chemical, and physical stations were set up for the kids to explore, and for the first time we were able to have a fourth station: invasive plants (many thanks to Stephannie).

Nearly every sixth-grader was talking and laughing as they approached the Bitterroot River early Tuesday—I could certainly tell they were eager to begin their morning as WEN’s very own scientists. I ran the chemistry station with Garreth, and we had a lot of fun working with the kids, watching them jump around and shake up their water samples. The best part about working at the chemistry station was listening to the responses to, “what is pH?”—needless to say, they discovered that it was not some sort of health issue or disease and it does not stand for doctor. It was really rewarding at the end to listen to the kids tell us what they learned and liked about the trip, especially when I heard, “I liked learning about pH,” and “pH from zero to seven is acid-ic.”

The children had a really great time at every station—the first thing we heard from the group that came to us from the plant station was endless bragging about how far they could spit seeds; the kids that had yet to go to the bug station anxiously eyed the lucky ones trampling around in the water nearby, and those from the physical station were thrilled to have spent their time with Josh, saying how fun we was (they probably just liked the Swedish Fish he gave them as a treat!). Not only did I have fun participating in the field trip, but I was also proud to have taken part in something so great. The amount of detailed information the kids learned and could explain to us at the end of the trip was extremely impressive. As soon as I got back to the office I signed up for another trip the following week, with no doubt about it! I strongly encourage others to do the same, you won’t regret it.

--Megan Girsch
WEN Intern

Summer Field Trip

2010-08-30T17:28:00.001-06:00

This Tuesday was another beautiful summer day and a perfect day to spend at the river. Josh, Megan and I headed to the Kelly Island area to meet some kids from the Montana Youth Homes. They had been down to this spot a couple times to explore, so they were all excited to learn about the watershed that they had been hanging out at.

The group turned into scientists in training as they donned safety goggles and gloves and began to measure the amount of oxygen in the river. As the chemicals began to react within the test tubes, the group found that the oxygen level in the water meant that river was healthy. Next up, we took to the river with nets to see what critters we could find in the river.

Working in pairs, the kids stirred up the rocks in the river to let the river bugs drift into the nets. When we emptied the nets, we found that there were a lot of stoneflies, along with a few mayflies and caddisflies. These were all more good signs that the river was healthy because they were able to support these animals that are sensitive to toxins. One girl was especially amazed that the river that they had been swimming in had all of these cool bugs swimming in it too.

As we marched away from the river with our equipment in hand, I thought about what we had learned in our couple of hours in the sun. The river was not only beautiful but also healthy enough to support all kinds of animals. Everyone loved playing in the river and cooling off, and today we learned how important it is to keep the river healthy so we can all continue to enjoy it.

Erica Thye
WEN Fall UM Intern
Senior in Environmental Studies

Downtown Tonight

2010-08-30T17:23:00.000-06:00

On Thursday, August 19, during one of the last nights of Downtown Tonight, WEN had the opportunity to have a display at Caras Park. Josh Gubits, Alaina Strehlow, and I set up three tables for the night’s festivities, with multiple interactive stations, including bins of live insects collected from our very own Clark Fork River. While the live music and smoke-smell of grilled burgers draped the air, many people stopped amongst the hustle and bustle to check out WEN.

At the bug table, we were met with many curious passersby. Dozens of people stopped to spoon out the variety of different insects, eager to examine and sort them into separate trays. It was really inspiring seeing the enthusiasm in the community for watershed education—a variety of people, from near and far, were hoping we could come to their own schools and communities to offer information and activities. We received a promising list of people interested in our program, wanting to support us and learn more.

While Alaina and Josh were teaching about stoneflies and their riparian environments, I had the pleasure of offering painting and coloring activities to the kids (and some enthusiastic adults). Some drew rivers, fish, and sunshine, while others took up my challenge to draw one of the many pictures of bugs we had on display. Children walked away from our station excited to hang their new masterpiece at home, and I must admit I was a bit embarrassed by the number of Missoula’s young artists that put my artistic abilities to shame.

By the end of the night, there was a great feeling of success. The three-hour event frequently brought waves of people crowding the tables at once. I was very impressed and proud that we had so many eager minds—one young girl even asked for a piece of paper and a pencil to take notes! I have no doubt that the demand for WEN is in full-force, and I am eager for a turnout such as this night’s at our upcoming events.

--Megan Girsch, WEN Fall UM Intern

Summer Time Stream Team

2010-07-22T09:29:00.001-06:00

June 2010

Rain continues to fill the banks of Western Montana’s streams and rivers. Driving from Dixon to Missoula every morning, I am struck by how green everything looks. Balsamroot and Lupin are still blooming in the hills, and the cottonwood and aspen are putting out new growth along the Jocko and Clark Fork Rivers. After an abnormally dry winter, let’s hope all this precipitation cuts the summer fire season short.

As native Montanan who migrated to New York for college, it’s great to be home for the summer. Hiking in the mountains, and seeing wildlife, rivers and wide open spaces again reminds me just how lucky I am to live in our beautiful state. A couple of weeks ago, I started a summer internship here at WEN. I’m excited to join the WEN team, and to learn about river education. Part of my internship this summer will include weekly Stream Team sessions. Every Wednesday from 1:00-4:00 pm, a group of community volunteers and WEN staff will be heading out to monitor the health of our local streams and rivers. The data and information we collect will be added to a National online database.

Despite the rainy weather, Emilie Kohler, Michael Anderson, Michael Canseco, Al Pak and I headed out to a site on Pattee Creek last week for Stream Team orientation. Emilie showed us the proper method for each stream experiment. We measured physical aspects of the stream, such as the stream channel morphology and flow characteristics, and using a tennis ball, we calculated velocity. After taking the physical measurements, I pulled on my waders, and along with Michael A., who splashed into the water in his sandals, collected material from the bottom of the channel in nets. We searched through the stream bottom contents for macroinvertibrate life. Although Pattee creek runs through residential Missoula, it seems to be a fairly healthy stream. We found worms, snails, a large cranefly larvae, and a great number of black fly larvae.

Yesterday, Stream Team drove up to Rattlesnake creek. The water was rushing along its banks at a high velocity, due to all the recent precipitation. The swift current made macroinvertibrate collection difficult. However, after only a small mishap in which a team member’s wader filled up with water, we collected a diverse sample that included over 200 mayfly larvae, an enormous stonefly, several types of caddis, aquatic worms, blackflies, and leaches. It was fascinating to see the mayfly larvae breathe; they have visible abdominal gills that flutter gently along their sides in the water.

Despite the threatening clouds, the rain held off until we finished collecting data. After a satisfying day in the field, Stream team headed back to the 4^th street office.

Gida in Glacier

2010-07-20T10:43:00.011-06:00

Last week, WEN joined Tony Berthelote of the Salish Kootenai College and the gidaa camp of Minnesota for 2 days in Glacier and a day of water monitoring in the Mission Mountains. The visiting gidaa camp has been coring Minnesota lakes as part of a wild rice lakes study. We met up with LacCore Scientists to core Lake Josephine at Many Glacier. Amy, one of the scientist, showed us a core they had taken from a neighboring lake which had ash from the eruption of Mount Mazama around 5700 BC (what is now Crater Lake OR). The cores recorded a sediment history up to 13,000 years old. Some things the samples are being tested for are Lead 210 and pollen. Lead in the atmosphere accumulated exponentially until it was reduced and ultimately banned in gasoline beginning in 1973. Looking at lead will aid in dating sediment. Studying pollen gives an idea of the vegetation biodiversity at the time. Students got to look at sediment under dissecting scope ride the “Purple Pony” out onto the lake and take a coring sample. Thursday, everyone enjoyed the views of glaciers close up on the bus tour of Glacier Park the Minnesota students, teachers and National Lab staff even had a shower under the Weeping Wall.Friday, WEN led students and teacher in water monitoring at Mission Creek Falls. The day was beautiful and sunny and the location was breathtaking. Students tested velocity, pH, dissolved oxygen, phosphates, nitrates, aquatic macro invertebrates, and more. The students tell it best and you can read about their study and their first impressions of Montana on their blog. You can also read a news article about the trip here. We really enjoyed meeting the amazing young gidaa camp scientist and sharing an incredible few days with them.

Flagship Electro shocking

2010-05-10T09:30:00.004-06:00

Last weeks Flagship outing took us to Grant Creek for an afternoon of fish electro shocking with John Choka and Aubrey Benson of the USFS. Sentinel students learned all about what john does as a fisheries biologist. After a briefing on safety and equipment, we wadered up, and headed into the creek to find some fish. On our first few passes we were unable to shock any fish, and we were worried with only twenty or so minutes left that we might get skunked. Aubrey joked that when you are fishing with electricity you should almost never get skunked.

And we didn’t. The students managed to net a few brook trout that measured between four and six inches in length. John recommended we do one more pass before calling it a day, and good thing because what happened next will live in my head forever. As John passed his wand through an undercut bank we all watched as a well fed 16 inch cutthroat surfaced. I had no idea that a fish that large would be lurking just minutes from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. We admired the beauty of the native cutthroat trout before quickly releasing it back into the creek. What a day! John guessed that the native beast was a resident fish rather than migratory spawner, leaving the rest of us fisherman dreaming of mid may when all of our favorite little tributaries open for fishing.

Swan Valley and Salmon Prarie Schools field trips!

2010-05-03T16:13:00.011-06:00

I could tell as I slid out of bed the morning of the 27th that my body was not used to getting up at 6:00. I hurried to get ready and by some magic made it to the office by 6:30, the appointed meeting time for an all day Swan Valley/ Salmon Prarie field trip. Once there I met with our two awesome volunteers Chrissy Orangio and John Hughes and after "borrowing" our VISTA Emilie's lunch we were off! It is a field trip I have been wanting to take for a while and despite the sagging eyelids I was excited. After a sleepy trip, we finally arrived at the beautiful wilderness and Swan Valley School. This was my first meeting with one of our biggest supporters, Diann Erickson who works for the Swan Ecosystems Center, and it was was every bit as motivating as I thought it would be. (This is her above picking through gunk trying to find Macroinvertebrates.) Despite the time she was up and excited about our upcoming field trip. Leading us into the small, quaint one-floor school, Diann talked us over the plan for the day and showed us an amazing display she had put together using pictures and data from the past 7 years of data we have collected with the school.We then went in to talk to the K-1st group, preparing them for the upcoming field trip. Despite their young age, they all remembered working with us in the fall and/or in previous years. Patiently they listened and answered questions.

Before we knew it we were down by the river, which was flowing very quickly, and starting with the field trip. I was leading the physical station and I had to admit, I was a bit rusty. In the moments as the kids were coming down I went over what I wanted to talk about in my head: Cloud cover, flood plain, shape of the channel, velocity, how does the areal around the stream affect it? What affects velocity? What parts of the river move faster or slower? Soon I had a group of wonderful, cooperative kids. Each took his or her turn to throw a stick, the shouters would shout start and stop as they stood on either side of a 20ft line, the timers would time, and the recorder would record, then the thrower would go trade places with someone who had a different job. We all had a lot of fun and the kids learned quite a bit.

After we finished up with that field trip we went to lunch at the local Mercantile and then Diann met us with a homeschooler she had picked up to come on our next field trip. We all drove to a small, but well-kept one-room school house entitled Salmon Prairie School. It's sole student was our other field trip attendee. We all went down to a beautiful swift flowing river that I was told was home to many Bull Trout! The two students we were working with were older and well familiar with our field trips. They knew the protocol and were basically able to run the stations by themselves. We all had fun collecting 300 bugs and participating in all the stations rather than teaching.At the end of the field trip I realized how important our work was. Without us, those kids would have been in the class all day and may not have ever learned about the beautiful rivers that surround them! We got to give them hands on science experience and re-enforced watershed ecology and science concepts year after year. I know I wish I had such an opportunity in school. Chrissy and John felt the importance of what we had done too, and on the ride home we all felt satisfied.

Milltown Dam Journeys Program

2010-04-26T16:14:00.007-06:00

Gareth Griffes is a new WEN volunteer this spring. We were so happy to have him on two field trips this week! Gareth help in teaching the Girl Scouts about aquatic macro invertebrates and later in the week assisted on our Milltown Dam Journeys field trip with Clinton school. Read his narrative about Milltown below:

At 12:15 on Wednesday, April 21st, I was privileged to take part in a Milltown dam FT with WEN. We would be taking approx. 20 kids out to the Milltown dam bluff to learn about the life of a bull trout, the usage of the area by native peoples, some geomorphology of the area, and all about the dam restoration project.

We left on time, picking up an MCAT employee by the name of Tor who arrived as suddenly as he was given the assignment to come out and film the FT. As I had only done the stream monitoring field trips so far, what we were going to be doing was a complete mystery to me. Deb told me all about the station I was to be helping Emilie with--the bull trout obstacle course. I had to just visualize it since we wouldn’t have that much time between setting up the station and then facili tating it for the kids. It was my first time in East Missoula (having no car is no fun), and it would be my first time seeing the dam restoration. Deb filled me in all about the history of the dam and all of its problems so I wouldn't seem too out of the loop.

When we got there the heat was stifling. The kids would be getting there in 10 minutes or so, so we had just enough time to set up and read over the script a few times. Houston and I would be helping Emilie out with the bull trout game, and Deb and Christa ran the geo caching activity on the bluff.

Our station was designed to show how difficult the life of a bull trout was. The kids would try and make it through all of the obstacles without 'dying' and we would see who made it all the way through. First was the man-made turbine (jump rope). Then came the going up through the fish ladder (jumping on one foot through a path). After that the ever-popular predator alley, where classmates would throw wiffle balls at them while they dodged thr ough cones (an underhanded throw and hitting below the waist was a rule often forgotten). Through the culvert was next (originally a hula hoop, then changed to a soccer ball from Albertsons), followed by the random conditions dice roll. Finally putting an egg under the chin, walking over to the red bucket (signifying a redd), and dropping it in meant a successful spawning.

Out of our two groups around 10 percent of the kids made it through. Nothing got too out-of-hand, but our Q&A session made the students a little sugar-buzzed due to the prizes of Swedish fish (a bull trout has to eat). The kids were good for the most part and though Tor filmed all throughout the trip, the kids didn't seem to notice, which was good because seeing the 6-graders interested in learning was the goal. We finished up with both groups and then went to listen to Peter Nielsen from the Missoula Water Quality District about the dam restoration project. It was great seeing the kids' enthusiasm about their future park and all about what they would be doing there in just a few years. Their teacher brought a much needed pack of water and we finished up around 3:30. We all piled into our (thankfully) air-conditioned cars, said goodbye to Tor at the office, and parted ways from another great field Trip with WEN.

If you know of a class or community group who would be interested in learning about the Milltown Dam, please email water@montanawatershed for more information.

WEN at MUD's Earth Day

2010-04-20T14:11:00.011-06:00

WEN joined MUD to celebrate Earth Day. The theme sustainability theme: 'Do it yourself with others' came alive with businesses and nonprofits offering their own educational activities. WEN brought aquatic macroinvertebrates from the Clark Fork River and offered aquatic macroinvert water coloring. We also had a few educational factoids on how much water it takes to produce every day consumables like meat and cotton. A few of our interns and volunteers came to help out at our table. Good music, good food, great weather, and good people! We met a some new friends and learned about the cool work our fellow nonprofits/businesses do to encourage sustainable living every day.

Amazing water facts included:

1lb of beef requires 1799 gallons of water. 3lbs of grain for feed, plus irrigation water. 16.4lbs of roughage or grasses for feed, plus irrigation water. 18.6 gallons of additional water for drinking and processing.

1 gallon of wine requires 1008 gallons of water . 63.4 gallons of water for 1 cup. Most of the water used for wine production is for growing grapes.

1 T-shirt requires 713 gallons of water 45% for irrigation 41% is rainwater that evaporates off of cotton fields 14% is for treating wastewater from fields and factories

One egg requires 53 gallons of water. Each lb of chicken requires 2 lbs of grain for feed and the associated irrigation of water

1lb of chocolate requires 3170 gallons of water. Each lb of dark chocolate is 40% cocoa paste, 20% cocoa butter. Cocoa paste has a water footprint of 3993.8 gallons of water for 1lb. Cocoa butter has a water footprint of 6091.7 gallons of water for 1lb.

To calculate your water footprint, visit these sites: Water Footprint Network; and for a more kid oriented approach: H2O Conserve

All of our facts came from National Geographics Freshwater page: Water per Pound, Drinking Water and Sanitation Quiz

They have some awesome interactive water quizes. Absolutely worth checking out!

Caution: WEN Field Trips could make you a morning person

2010-04-12T15:23:00.005-06:00

April 8th, 2010 Sentinel High School Field Trip at the Clark Fork

From the 6:45a pick up, to loading equipment, to the essential coffee stop, to scoping out the monitoring site, to site set up, I finally realized what a beautiful morning it was sitting on a log pulling off my waders. The light pink tinged clouds, the bustle of the Clark Fork, Canada geese flying over caused an emotion to well up inside me: ‘I’m at the river and it’s a good day to be alive.’ This field trip was a little different than the others I’ve done in the past. Because of time restraints, we primarily demo’ed how to run the water quality tests instead of letting the students do them. This way we were able to focus on the main scientific ideas of water quality testing and downplay the step by step instructions of conducting the tests. In addition to dissolved oxygen, we showed students how to test for nitrates and phosphates and more importantly, why we test and what would cause detectable traces of the substances to be there. Eutrophication was one of the main ideas in the lesson. Having done some undergraduate research on aquatic plant cover in a stream recovering from eutrophication, I have a vested interest in the subject. The site I studied during my undergraduate was a spring fed calcium carbonate stream recovering from point source pollution. As a student, eutrophication can be a tricky concept to understand. When students are asked about contributors of dissolved oxygen, plants are a common guess, so it is essential to clarify the overall effects. Aside from the outcome eutrophication has on DO levels, I like to mention the effect it has of lowering aquatic plant diversity. Massive algal blooms set off a competition for sunlight that shut out submergent plants. This was evident in the research I did as watercress (an emergent plant) and filamentous algae dominated the stream before recovery.

WEN volunteer Taylor Wilcox joined us for the second half of the field trip to lead the chem station. As the second group of students filed down to the river, the clouds began to darken and the wind kicked up. Before we could get through our second station, the sky opened up on us with a nice dose of cold rain, when it noticed that we weren’t budging, it changed to graupel-like snow, then gave up and went back to rain. The students maintained a level of enthusiasm, but we were all more than glad to finish and get out of the cold.

Emilie Kohler is an AmeriCorps*VISTA Development Assistant for Watershed Education Network. She has been working with WEN since July 2009.

New WEN volunteers share their first field trip experience

2010-04-05T16:26:00.005-06:00

Two new WEN volunteers share their first field trip experience on Wed. April 1st at Turah

Kirsten Kober goes to school at the University of Montana. She studies Resource Conservation in the College of Forestry. Her favorite color is yellow and she enjoys hiking in the wilderness and playing frisbee.

Gareth Griffes is currently in between schooling right now. He attended Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, CO, and is looking for a different career path. He enjoys travelling, hiking mountains, rugby, and listening to chilled-out music.

Entering our first volunteer experience with WEN, we were feeling both nervous and excited. We were nervous about teaching 7th graders (with whom we had little experience teaching), and excited about getting our youth to experience and learn about their local river. We travelled approx. 15 minutes upstream to our river-site in Turah. There, we set up our stations and quietly awaited the arrival of the bus.

As it pulled into the parking lot, we swallowed our nerves and put on our best smiles as the 20-odd students scampered down to meet us. We had decided beforehand that Kirsten and Emilie were to do the physical station, Josh to solo the bug station, and I was to assist Al at the chemical station. After our brief introduction to the class, we all split up to begin our lessons.

As I was not too familiar with the chemical station, I stayed silent for much of our first group and listened to Al's teaching for the most part. The kids themselves were pretty reluctant to try and answer any questions at first, with a few exceptions. As we got to know each other better though, they began to open up more. Explaining about dissolved oxygen and the pH scale brought back my own fond memories of middle school science. Ah, the good ol' days! I felt much more familiar with the material as the day wore on, even teaching some of our station to the second and third groups.

Kirsten worked the physical station with Emilie, she also became more confident as the kids became more rambunctious and enthusiastic. The kids enjoyed throwing the sticks in the river. Kirsten noticed that many of the students really enjoyed doing the hands-on things at the station. Even the simple things like measuring out the distance between the two stakes and hammering the stakes into the ground were prized jobs. By the third round she felt comfortable teaching the station and when she lost her train of thought Emilie was there as back up. It's really nice to have two people working the stations because if you forget something the other person can step in and help out. All in all, the kids behaved as we expected them to-- excited whenever we dealt with chemicals and getting in the water, and sometimes forgetful when it came to remembering facts.

As time expired in the third group, the kids were eager to be getting back home. We said our farewell and there was an immediate sprint to grab the best seats on the bus. We all were happy that the day had gone so well and that there weren't really any problems. The whole ride back we talked about all of the good (and unexpected) things that the students had said. My favorite quote was "Science is awesome. They should do it all over the world!".

Upon our departure from WEN, we both felt a sense of accomplishment for the work we had done and a desire to do it again as soon as possible. It was definitely a blast working with WEN!

Bonner Scool Stream Monitoring

2010-04-05T16:05:00.003-06:00

Spring days are here, most of the cold winter days are behind us. As I watch sun shining on rivers and we hear of snow geese on Freeze Out Lake, WEN’s office is a buzz with new energy. Even a spring break week meant class presentations and fieldtrips for WEN’s team.

Last week as Sean Kiffe’s Bonner School students were headed to Turah Fishing Access to collect School Stream Monitoring data for their sixth year, WEN’s 2010 spring volunteers were staged to meet them. Launching WEN’s spring river field activities with a whopping 34 fieldtrips scheduled from Feb. through June, some wonder how does WEN do all of this. It starts with Josh Gubits and the winter water monitoring trainings. Then, Alain Strehlow recruiting the new volunteers and regular volunteers for the fieldtrips the teachers schedule for their students. New volunteers, Kristen Kober, Gareth Griffes, Sheri Whittlake, high school student Conner Weston, regular volunteers Al Pak and Travis Ross from Missoula Water Quality District joined the fieldtrip staff. The weather was fine for a fieldtrip, cool but with sun shots enough to keep everyone motivated. New volunteers learned from the experienced crew how to best engage the seventh grade students in learning new concepts of their river.

Eager students broke into their groups of physical, chemical, and biological groups. Travis Ross brought an electronic multi-meter probe to compare pH, conductivity and temperature to WEN’s field equipment measurements.

The aquatic insect station always keeps the students interested. The favorite discoveries were large salmon flies, net spinning caddis with green bellies, and red mayfly nymphs Josh identified as Flathead mayflies. Students were also enthusiastic about measuring velocity by throwing sticks in the river and timing them as they floated downstream. Animated yells to the students operating the stopwatches could be heard of ‘start!’ at one end and ‘stop!’ as the sticks crossed the downstream steaks.

It is a great way to learn and a good thing to have students out for an afternoon at Clark Fork River. Even a chilly day at the river is better than the classroom for seeing, feeling, knowing a river. These are the students who have grown up watching the changes to the Clark Fork River in their backyards. Only a few years ago, they drove or walked by a reservoir of water at the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork Rivers.

"Science is awesome. They should do it all over the world!". ~Thomas, 7th grade Bonner Student

Montana Watercourse Training

2010-03-29T16:35:00.005-06:00

On Thursday WEN staff, volunteers, and interns received a Level One Certifications in Volunteer Water Monitoring Training from Montana Watercourse. We learned a different method of testing for dissolved oxygen and pH and we tested out a flow meter. Thanks to all the people who came out to the training and to our trainer Kathryn Watson.

7th and 8th grade Seeley Field Trip on Morrell Creek

2010-03-29T16:23:00.004-06:00

Tuesday evening WEN showcased our programs at the Missoula Federal Credit Union Sustainability Fair. Young and old flocked around the groundwater flow model and one of our newly finished aquatic macroinverts! Thank you volunteers!

Early Wednesday, WEN headed up to Seeley Elementary School and met Patti Bartlett's 7th and 8th grade classes at Morrell Creek to collect water chemistry and aquatic macro invertebrate data.

Seeley Students On Morrell Creek

WEN groundwater partnership

2010-03-26T08:52:00.004-06:00

Houston Thompson has been interning with the Watershed Education Network since Fall 2009. With WEN, he has been working with the large amount of data collected on streams and rivers over the years. Under the guidance of Tony Berthelote, University of Montana grad student, SKC faculty and WEN volunteer, Houston has picked up on the end of a long running monthly well monitoring project. The monitoring is associated with a larger study on the Milltown Dam removal through the Geosciences Department of the University of Montana. The monitoring started long before the dams removal to study the effects of the drawdown on groundwater. Last weekend, (March 19th and 20th) in addition to the monthly hand measurements, two dozen data loggers (ducers) were uploaded from about 50 wells focused between East Missoula and Turah. The ducers provide conditions in the wells in two hour increments, since the monitoring last November, and will continue to provide data until the project terminates. The results confirm the low water table as normal in the area for March, with a few signs of the beginning of spring melt. Recent chemical and bacterial lab tests on 20 samples had good results as well. Funding for this particular monitoring project runs out in June, but the experience and the quality data collected will last long after.

Missoula International School explores groundwater

2010-03-22T11:29:00.011-06:00

"Water is a limited resource that requires care"

Aquifer, geology, groundwater, infiltration, pollution, the life of a water droplet-these are topics that Krista Drendel & Rocío Muhs's K1 students at Missoula International School investigated during their class visit from Watershed Education Network. Students got the opportunity to travel the world as a water droplet in a Project Wet game called The Incredible Journey. Program Director Josh Gubits engaged the class in thinking about the water beneath our feet with the groundwater flow model. Students excitedly watched and made predictions as the aquifer was "polluted" and water was drawn from different wells along the aquifer. Then the class headed outside to build their own groundwater experiment. First they decided what they wanted their aquifer to do with the water, then they predicted which layers to add (clay, sand, stone, dirt) and in what proportions. Students observed the amount of filtration and the time it took for water to flow through their aquifer.

WEN and SKC head to Minneapolis

2010-03-16T15:23:00.001-06:00

Sometimes the most amazing things happen when you say ‘yes’ to new learning experiences….

Tony Berthelote, the SKC Natural Resources Faculty member who is working with WEN to encourage more Native American students to study environmental sciences had a great invitation for us, but until we arrived in Minnesota, we didn’t really understand just how great of a learning experience we were in for. He told me about the incredible National Water Lab at St. Anthony Falls, gida Camp in the Minnesota woods and the enthusiasm of the Minnesota students and the dedicated teachers. It sounded like a great model to go see and experience. Through email, the trip arrangements were made and we were an unlikely western Montana team: SKC Natural Resources chair, Bill Swaney, undergraduate student in Natural Resources, Austin Moran, Tony Berthelote, Two Eagle River School science teacher, Allen Bone, Bonner School gifted teacher, Bill Stockton, two Bonner School seventh grade students, and me, Director of Watershed Education Network.

We arrived at the Missoula airport at 6:15, just in time for the breakfast meeting with Bonner School seventh grade students, Jonathan Taylor and Riley Slayden and their parents. They were interested in hearing all about the schedule and the places we would go. Lift off. We arrived in Minneapolis and were greeted by Diana Dalboton of the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls National Lab. She was our tour guide for the days in Minnesota. Diana arranged for lunch and a whirlwind tour of the six stories of water studies in the National Lab. We saw room-sized models of river channels where river flow was studied, delta formation studies in huge models, and sediment deposition studies in gigantic tanks of flowing river water. The favorite was the wind tunnel, where wind velocity studies were taking place. We took pictures of the gigantic falls and Minneapolis across the river. We headed north to Cloquet, where we would go to the gida Camp in the woods and join students and teachers on their weekend science camp.

Through the fog and mist with hardwood and pine forests lining the hills we saw lots of frozen lakes. The gida Camp was a beautiful setting like UM’s Lubrect Forest and Camp Paxson on Seeley Lake. There were about 45 studetnts there from grades 4-12 studying the lake sediments of the lake a short distance from camp that grows wild rice. gida Camp or “gidakiimanaaniwigamig is committed to working with American Indian students as they work towards their high school graduation and prepare for their post-secondary education in the areas of Science, Engineering, Technology and Math (STEM). The University of Minnesota's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory's Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED) and the Center for Compact and Effiecient Fluid Power (CCEFP) have generously sponsored this ongoing program through professional and financial support of Seasonal camps, Science Fairs, and robotic and fluid dynamic -robotic competitions.”

According to the website, gidakiimanaaniwigamig seasonal camp will host the manoomin project, a study of the wild rice lakes on the Fond du Lac reservation. The Fond du Lac Natural Resources Department is working with the University of Minnesota LaCorre Liminological Department, the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College to take lake cores from 6 wild rice lakes over a period of five years. Information found will be shared between the University, College and Reservation to better understand the history and future of wild rice.

For student photos, research study details, go to the website blog page: http://manoomin.albrookschool.net/

The study was a partnership with Fond du Lac Natural Resources Department and Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College put the students in research projects with the scientists. They meet at the gida Camp one weekend a month to continue their teams’ lake or sediment research.

We were greeted warmly by Holly Pellerin and Lowana and graciously introduced to everyone, then herded off to dinner, one of our first amazing meals of the weekend. Each meal began with a Native American blessing and followed by a tradition of elders eating first, followed by high school, then younger students. The aura of respect for tradition and one another was tangible throughout the weekend. The high school students showcased their research with a slide presentation, with teams taking turns describing their projects. It was great to see girls and guys sharing leadership and showing confidence in their science projects.

Saturday, we went to robofest at a local elementary school gym! Incredible array of students from middle school to high school in contests to see which programmed robot would make the obstacle course set out in the competition. One of the gida Camp fourth grade students had her lego airplane, programmed to have the propeller spin, on display.

We left Robofest in time to stop by the Fond du Lac Community Center and drive up to Duluth to see where the St. Louis River flowed into the ice-jammed Lake Superior. Through the mist we saw the dark blue water that extended past the horizon with waves and white caps out in the distance. Near shore was the cartoon-like ‘pancake ice’ or ice that formed through the wave action on the lake. It was a stunning view.

Sunday morning the sun broke through and said fond farewells to our new Fond du Lac and gida Camp family. We drove in sunshine back to Minneapolis where Diana had arranged for a special time at the Minneapolis Science Museum. We met one of the map builders, Paul who showed us some special maps of the earth created to cover a gigantic part of the museum floor!

As our plane carried us back to the mountains, we were all thinking about how to bring the rich and dynamic gida Camp model to Montana or at least bring our new friends and family out west to see and experience our lakes, forests and science research!

Trained and ready for the field season!

2010-03-15T16:14:00.008-06:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to our Stream Monitoring Training on Saturday! We had a great time meeting new friends and learning new things at the creek! If you would like to volunteer with us, check our WEN calendar and contact water@montanawatershed.org.