Story Photos
 Photo by Bill Wagner Wahkiakum High School junior Hayden Miles measures the flow of Duck Creek in Cathlamet. |
High schoolers study the environment in Columbia Estuary program
Thursday, July 27, 2006 11:27 PM PDT
By Stephanie Mathieu
Printable version
E-mail this articleCATHLAMET -- For many teens, working a summer job means making minimum wage in retail or fast food.
But about 20 high school students are splashing around in streams, chasing after frogs and making $9 an hour.
"It's much better than babysitting all summer," said 15-year-old Kalisha Mace, who is involved in the Columbia Estuary Environmental Education Program through the Wahkiakum Community Foundation.
The program employs nearly 20 students from Wahkiakum High and Naselle-Grays River schools to gather fish habitat information for Wahkiakum County. Students are working five weeks in Cathlamet assessing fish habitat at Duck Creek and checking for pollution on the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for Columbian White-Tailed Deer. Then they will spend one more week presenting their findings to state agencies and the public.
"It's kind of like a school thing, but it's way more fun," said Mace, an incoming sophomore at Wahkiakum who is thinking about becoming an agriculture teacher.
On the refuge site, some students catch frogs to check them for extra limbs or toes. Deformities can be a way to detect pollution in the area. They also capture and send mosquitos off to be tested for the deadly West Nile virus.
So far there have been no frog abnormalities, and the group still is waiting to hear back from the lab about their mosquitos, said Colin Kambak, a graduate intern at the foundation who helps guide the high-schoolers.
At Duck Creek, other students are building a 700-foot fence around the water to keep cows from trampling on the banks of the creek. Students are also measuring how much water flows through the creek, how many insects are available for fish to eat, the acidity levels of the water, and the location of noxious weeds around the creek.
One of these menacing plants is the Japanese Knotweed. The foreign weed is difficult to kill, stifles natural vegetation and doesn't provide enough shade for salmon. By mapping the weeds' locations, an extermination crew can later locate and destroy them.
The group hopes information collected will convince the county that a new bridge needs to replace the salmon-blocking culverts where Duck Creek flows under the Elochoman Valley Road.
"There used to be so many fish," said Kayla Cliffton, who will be a sophomore at Wahkiakum. "Now there's nothing, and it's kind of sad. We need a bridge."
If the county thinks the habitat will be healthy for salmon, they are more likely to invest in the rebuilding project, Wahkiakum science teacher Jeff Rooklidge said.
And so far, things look good.
"The data really says, yes, this is a healthy stream," Rooklidge said. "We have all the habitat we need."
Last year the foundation's $45,000 budget allowed it to hire about eight students from Wahkiakum High School. The foundation gets its money through grants from various businesses and organizations, and this year, the foundation received almost double the funds for its habitat education project ($90,000).
The foundation received double the student interest this year, too. A panel of teachers sifted through about 40 applications to find students with a passion for science and wildlife. Cliffton said there was a buzz surrounding the job from students previously involved in the project.
"I just like being out here," said entering Wahkiakum junior Hayden Miles, who is participating in the program for a second year. He said working at the creek has increased his interest in botany and made him more conscious of wildlife and the need to keep salmon runs healthy
"Salmon runs are going downhill," Miles said.
"It's good for these students working in their local environment," Kambak said. "These students might not choose to go into science, but the skills they learn will help them make the right decisions."
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