Seeds to Salmon program shows students how riparian habitats work
TOUTLE - Each Earth Day for the past four years, around 130 high schoolers from Battle Ground's Center for Agriculture, Science, and Environmental Education have trekked to Harry Gardner Park in Toutle for a unique outdoor opportunity.
"We realize salmon recovery can't happen in a vacuum, and the ecological connection between students and landscapes like this ... is important to foster," said Morgan Morris, executive director of the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group, which organizes the outings.
Even steady rain and cooler temperatures couldn't dampen the students' enthusiasm for this year's trip, which was the third for CASEE seniors Alexis Atchley and Aurora Jarvi.
"Every year we've come back, we've just been able to do so much," Jarvis said. "It gives us so much knowledge about the site and the area that we're in. And it gives us a sense of accomplishment."
While Jarvis isn't sure she will pursue a career in natural resources, she said she wants to continue volunteering for restoration and planting projects.
Atchley said the in-class learning covers a wide range of subjects, from agriculture and natural resources to air and water quality, as well as related testing.
"It's learning about the world that we're in and how it's being affected, and how we can change things," she said. "You're almost out doing something every day, whether it's on campus or on a field trip or in the science lab. It's always hands-on work, which is way better than just sitting in a classroom."
As part of its mission to preserve and protect salmon habitat, the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group works with local schools, cities, nonprofits and tribes to provide in-class and outdoor education programs. Its Seeds to Salmon program teaches middle and high school students how riparian habitats function. Students learn to plant conifer and deciduous tree seeds, take cuttings from shrubs, design revegetation plans, and help propagate and grow new trees and plants for future restoration projects.
"You can only do so much of that at schools. Getting kids out here, in the environment, to drive home the lessons that they've learned all year, we found really leaves a lasting impression," Morris said.
Native plants added
Work at the Harry Gardner Park site began in 2014. Over the next few years, the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group installed 26 large woody structures to help diffuse the river during high-water events, spread the water flow across the floodplain and provide habitat for salmon. The group also planted 50,000 native trees, plants and shrubs during that period.
The annual field trips give students the opportunity to continue the planting efforts and use technology to map plant growth and the changing landscape.
"We're going to do some planting of our native plants. We're going to do some invasive removal of Scotch broom. And then we're also going to have a group do some (geographic information system) surveying with your fancy tablets," Emily Kitali, education manager for the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group, told the students. "So it's going to be a pretty cool day."
Kitali explained that following the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the Toutle River watershed was inundated with nutrient-poor sediment that made it difficult for native plants to recover and become established.
"That's one of the reasons why we're working so hard to install these native plants, to benefit salmon habitat," she said.
The students separated into two groups. The first group planted Douglas fir, red osier dogwood, Saskatoon serviceberry, willow, slough sedge and other native plants. The second group used tablets with geographic information system software to map the prior years' plantings. After a break, the groups switched to ensure everyone had a chance to participate in both tasks.
"They're going to go out and they're going to record the 2025 growth of the plants that we planted last year, and that the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group planted the last few years, to see how much they've grown over the last season and then how tall they are overall and if they're dead or alive," Center for Agriculture, Science, and Environmental Education teacher Jessica Molskness said. "We're basically doing a small bit of monitoring work for the students to learn how to use these tablets for field data."
Molskness, who teaches freshman biology and natural resources, said being able to use this kind of technology in the field is an important skill for any science career.
Fellow biology and natural resources teacher Chelsey Pacanins said working with the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group lets students participate in on-the-job activities not offered elsewhere.
"We're (career and technical education) teachers. The whole goal of our program is to get students ready for a career, potentially a career like this," Pacanins said. "They've propagated plants, they've grown plants, and now they get to do the final step of putting those plants into the ground."
Morris cautioned that state funding cuts have put the future of this and other education programs offered by the Lower Columbia Fish Enhancement Group at risk.
"Our education program is the thing that's probably the most vulnerable, because the programs that fund it were cut," Morris said. "We don't have any active grants funding it currently."
She said the group has had some success with outreach efforts for direct donations from corporations and charitable foundations, but not enough to cover the $80,000 a year needed to keep its education programs going.
This story was made possible by Community Funded Journalism, a project from The Columbian and the Local Media Foundation. Top donors include the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund, Patricia, David and Jacob Nierenberg, Connie and Lee Kearney, Steve and Jan Oliva, The Cowlitz Tribal Foundation and the Mason E. Nolan Charitable Fund. The Columbian controls all content. For more information, visit columbian.com/cfj.
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