Student Service Learning Programs throughout the Skagit River Watershed
By Lucy DeGrace

JUNIOR STREAM STEWARDS
This school year, SFEG is excited to be working with two local schools, Concrete Middle and Cascade Middle, to deliver the Junior Stream Stewards program. This program consists of several classroom visits throughout the school year with activities that teach students about their watershed, salmon habitat and conservation, water quality and more. The program begins with a watershed tour, and wraps up with a service learning project, such as tree planting or storm drain marking in their local watershed.

Junior Stream Stewards is made possible this year thanks to some crucial partners. In addition to the wonderful school staff and teachers Mrs. Janda (Concrete) and Mr. Robinson (Cascade), we have to thank the funders, without which the program would not happen. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Aquatic Lands Enhancement Account provided funds for materials for the next two years, and the local businesses and organizations listed here have contributed over $14,000 toward the implementation of the Junior Stream Stewards for this school year.

Local Junior Stream Stewards Donors: Cap Sante Marina Cascade Natural Gas Fidalgo Fly Fishers Janicki Industries Janicki Logging and Construction Kiwanis Club of Burlington-Edison Lakeside Industries PACCAR Pacific Mariner, Inc. Sierra Pacific Foundation Shell Oil - Puget Sound Refinery Skagit Community Foundation Skagit State Bank Summit Bank Tesoro Washington Alder

Students from Concrete Middle School evaluated salmon habitat at each stop on the Lorenzan Creek watershed tour.

Junior Stream Stewards helped design and install this sign at Lorenzan Creek.

FOREST AND SALMON STEWARDS
SFEG is also working with Darrington Elementary School and Stillaguamish Valley School in partnership with Snohomish County Surface Water Management, WSU Extension/Snohomish County 4-H, the Stilly Snohomish Fisheries Enhancement Task Force, and the US Forest Service. This program, called Forest and Salmon Stewards, is similar to Junior Stream Stewards in that it combines monthly classroom lessons and two field trips to complete a service learning project for salmon habitat restoration. Students will plan and implement a riparian planting project on Forest Service property at Mouse Creek in Darrington in spring 2008. Many thanks to teachers Tracy Franke and Chuck Quantrille at Darrington Elementary for their participation in this new program.

It’s been a lot of fun working with all of these students groups, and we hope to be able to continue Junior Stream Stewards as well as Forest and Salmon Stewards well into the future. After all, the future of Skagit salmon depends on the decision makers of tomorrow. Continuation of the programs is dependent on funding, which can be difficult to find due to competition with other education programs. If you are interested in making a donation specific to these valuable education programs, please contact SFEG for more information.

Students learned how to map the restoration site at Mouse Creek, near Darrington, as part of their service-learning project.