Stillaguamish Natural Resources Education Program

The Natural Resource Education Program provides variety of activities to the local public. These include educational venues such as hosting the annual Festival of the River, hosting educational restoration-hatchery tours, lessons for adult stewards in training, and visiting local high school and elementary classes to teach salmon and watershed ecology. We also host several stewardship/restoration events annually and provide internships for high school and college students.  In 2010, we worked with 10 different school and 625 students.

Youth Lessons:

Watersheds.  What are they and which ones are yours?

This is an in-class session. Students learn what a watershed system is, its functions, how they can be good stewards of their own watershed.

Our relationship with salmon

In this two part in-class session, students discuss the cultural values of salmon, local species of salmon, their lifecycle, and freshwater habitat needs.  In the second session, students learn what an estuary is and their function as an ecosystem.  They also address issues of sharing common resources in and around estuaries. These lessons incorporate games as a teaching tool.

Native Plants and Forests

Students learn the basics of plant identification and function, the ABCs of plants (abiotic, biotic, and cultural values), make a plant key, learn traditional uses of plants, and what invasive plants are their implications for the local environment.  The also learn to understand trees and forests as a system.

Water Quality Stewardship

What happens to rain water on its way to Puget Sound?  Students learn about water quality parameters and how their actions affect the quality of water in our lakes, streams, rivers, and oceans.

Estuaries.  Just what happens when a river meets the sea? 

Students learn the components and functions of an estuary, as well as the myriad of lifeforms that depend upon it.

Pacific Northwest Tribal Treaty Rights

This lesson is designed to alleviate misconceptions about the rights and rules related to salmon and Pacific Northwest Treaty Tribes.  Students will learn about the stories and people behind this amazing history.

School Group Field trips

Community partners who make our field trips possible through invaluable volunteer support include Sound Salmon Solutions, Snohomish Conservation District, and Camano Island Beach Watchers.

Riparian forest stewardship field trips

Students visit local restoration sites and participate in planting native vegetation.  In addition they go through two learning stations: water quality testing, ABCs (abiotic, biotic, and cultural components) of a forest, native plants, or Global  Positioning System exercises.

Harvey Creek Hatchery Field Trips

These trips occur when chum salmon are returning to Harvey Creek.  School groups of up to 50 students take a tour of about 60 - 90 minutes, visiting six learning stations: salmon freshwater habitat requirements, water quality, salmon anatomy, species identification and status, spawning, and rearing. 

 Estuary Field Trips

Taking place either at Iverson Spit Preserve or Kayak Point Park, school groups visit from two to six learning stations that may include beach seining, search for forage fish spawning, investigating what lives under the mudflats, exploring upland habitat, learning local geography, measuring tidal changes.

Other Classes, Lessons, and Workshops

Salmon Habitat Restoration Walks

Schedule a group visit to the Tribal Lower Pilchuck Park &  Wildlife Refuge.  Guided walks through restored riparian forest, stream, and wetlands in recovery.

Ten Tips for Making Puget Sound a Healthier Place to Live

This 90 minute workshop addresses a few of the common problems facing Puget Sound and simple steps you can take each day to make a difference.

The pharmacy in your backyard

Two hour workshop teaching traditional uses of common plants in this region.  Students learn basic recipes for healing teas, common edibles, and the ecological importance of native vegetation.

Common tidepool critters in Puget Sound

A one hour slide show on the unique form and functions common invertebrates in Puget Sound.

Summer Youth Day-Camp

In 2011 we will begin a one week summer youth day camp for various age groups.  Students will spend the week in nature, visiting ecosystems throughout the Stillaguamish watershed.  They will learn about forests, salmon, estuaries and cultural issues involving use of natural resources through field trips, games, and science.  Activities may include beach seining, testing water quality in streams, assessing salmon freshwater habitat on different stream reaches, forest exploration, monitoring restoration projects.  These activities incorporate lessons on the food web, predator-prey interactions, challenges of the salmon lifecycle, wildlife population changes over time, and much more.

**  Please contact Franchesca Perez at 360-631-2620 or email at fperez@stillaguamish.com for question or more information.**