Rattlesnake School Groundwater Presentation

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

Check out what's happening at WEN!

The WEN Team Celebrates 15 Years of Watershed Education!

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

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!

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?

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

Water Poems

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!

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!

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

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

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?

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

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!

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

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?

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!

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

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.