Tales from Field Trips by Education Intern Michaela Provancha

/in , , /by

My time with Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group as an educational intern so far has pushed me to grow my skill set and interests. I have had the opportunity to work with SFEG on both classroom lessons and field trips in order to teach students about salmon and their life cycle. Living in the Pacific Northwest, many students will hear about salmon throughout their childhoods yet may not understand their importance or uniqueness. It has been so rewarding to engage with students about a topic that is often new to them and to see new interests arise surrounding salmon and marine life.

Michaela leading a test of the dissolved oxygen in Hansen Creek

In the classroom lessons I start by introducing the SFEG program Salmon in Schools. This program connects with hundreds of students across many schools to teach about salmon and their life cycles through teaching and hands-on experience. Students not only learn about salmon, they also raise 200 salmon eggs in their classes and release them into a stream months later.

After students are familiar with the Salmon in Schools program, I give them an introduction into the five local Pacific salmon, then lead them through a bracelet activity representing the salmon life cycle. I have enjoyed how excited kids get for crafts and their ability to link that fun to an educational experience. Shortly after students learn about salmon in the classroom, they get to take a field trip out to a river where their salmon will be released later on in the school year. Many of them will show up with their salmon life cycle bracelets and it has been so rewarding to see how many remember the information we taught them and their excitement.

When I started this internship, I already had a lot of interest and background information on Pacific salmon. I often bother my friends and family with fun salmon facts and love to tell other people why I love salmon so much. Once the internship started, I realized that teaching a classroom of young kids is terrifying. This was my first experience teaching students and it was difficult to stand in front of the class and teach at first. Through these experiences, I am confident in teaching students now and I even lead volunteers through teaching as well.

In a few more months, it will be time for the salmon eggs to be delivered to the schools and students will be able to start watching their eggs grow into little fish. I am beyond excited to continue in this internship and see interest grow in marine life for many young students.

Rolling Out the “Redd” Carpet by WCC Crewmember PJ Heusted

/in , , /by

Did you miss your chance to attend the Wild and Scenic Film Festival? Don’t worry, PJ’s got you covered on the ins and outs of what you missed!

 

‘On October 12, Skagit Fisheries hosted the Wild and Scenic Film Festival for one night only at the Lincoln Theater showing a selection of environmental short films. The films ranged from making the audience laugh at one-star reviews of the National Parks to making them cry when confronted with the realities of habitat degradation and climate change’s effects on local salmon populations.

The festival opened with Finding Salmon which featured the Salmon Watch program in Oregon which looks to get school-aged youth out and into streams to see salmon and connect with their local watersheds. After the opener ended, the energy in the theater changed when One Star Reviews started; despite being short, this film got the most laughter as it shared low reviews of some of the nations most beautiful National Parks complaining about the number of rocks and lack of wildlife on display.

 

The Last Last Hike introduced the audience to Nimblewill Nomad on his attempt to become the oldest person to thru hike the Appalachian Trail and shared the story of his life spent walking, long distance hiking, and time spent at Flagg Mountain.

 

The film festival’s next film, Black Like Plastic, continued to explore outdoor recreation, but through a different lens. The film features Chris Ragland and his non-profit, The Sea League, in a conversation about environmental justice and recreation as a method for advocacy. 

 

Land of the Yakamas continued to build on the ideas of advocacy and providing a platform to diverse voices as the film demonstrated the importance of indigenous voices in environmentalism and shared accounts of the environmental stressors present along the Columbia River that continue to affect the surrounding indigenous communities.

 

The next film took us from the Pacific Northwest into the deserts of the Southwest and into the depths of Glen Canyon. In Tad’s Emerging World – Glen Canyon Exposed filmmaker and photographer Dawn Kish retraces the steps of many explorers before her through the viewfinder of a historic camera. Kish blends history, memoir, and environmentalism in her exploration of the canyon as water levels dip to new historic lows.

 

Rounding out the short films of the first act is I Am Salmon featuring a poem of the same name in which the author takes on the perspective of the salmon to share the narrative of their hard journey to and from the ocean. This film highlights the Japanese printmaking art of gyotaku, using the body of a salmon to create a print while the poem is read.

 

The final film of the night was Shane Anderson’s The Lost Salmon shared breakthrough research showing distinct genetic differences between spring and fall run Chinook salmon that could work to provide further legal protections for the remaining native stocks. Anderson’s film showed stories of salmon from various rivers across the Pacific coast and highlighted voices from the people that are working to save their native salmon runs. The film took the audience on a journey through the current highs and lows of salmon conservation taking on a hopeful tone for the future of these fish, but stayed rooted in the current difficulties that salmon face in our rivers.

 

From the Whiskey River Mudflats bluegrass performance that kicked off the night through the final moments of the film festival, the theater was alive with a love for restoration, conservation, and a passion for the environment. The 2023 Wild and Scenic Film Festival felt like a love letter to the outdoors signed by everyone in the theater, and I’m already looking forward to next year’s festival.’

Redder Western Red Cedars by Bengt Miller, Stewardship Coordinator

/in , /by

If you have been paying attention to the trees lately, then you may have noticed that they are getting ready
for fall. Trees have ceased their growth and are preparing for their leaf drop and dormant season. This
becomes particularly evident when deciduous trees shed their leaves in fall, sometimes with spectacular
showing of autumn color. While it is obvious that deciduous trees like alders, maples, and cottonwoods
lose their leaves in the fall, most people are unaware that evergreens (also called conifers) also lose
some of their foliage.
When western red cedars lose their older needles, it is called cedar flagging. It is most noticeable in the
late summer through fall as brown interior branches begin to appear. To those unaware this can look
disconcerting, as it appears the tree is beginning to turn brown and die. Fear not, this is a natural
process. It can be exacerbated by periods of drought, but is a natural process and does not harm the
tree. By the time spring arrives the dead needles have fallen to the ground and the tree appears all
green again.
As more and more people hear about the native cedars struggling in our area, many are paying more and
more attention to their arboreal surroundings. It’s true our iconic western red cedars appear to be
struggling with the local impacts from climate change, but not every cedar you see with some brown in
the canopy is dying. Drought stressed cedars turn brown from the top down and then from the branch tips to
the interior. Cedar flagging occurs from the interior of the tree outwards. The cedar sheds the older
interior needles while the tips remain green.
If you believe you have noticed this on a local neighborhood tree, keep an eye on it. Most likely the dead
needles and branches will fall during a heavy rainstorm or the first serious windstorm of the winter.
Then these branches will fall to the ground and act as a mulch for the surrounding forest. Older
generations of needles/leaves provide nutrients for future generations of trees, much like adult salmon dying provides nutrition for future salmon generations.