A TEACHER COMMENT ON VISITS BY RON.........

I had the honor and privilege to work with Mr.Ron Hirschi. To say it was amazing just doesn't seem to be enough. The experience was truly life changing and humbling. To be afforded the opportunity to be in a pond, interacting with the environment while watching your students learn was positively awesome! I am not an outdoor enthusiast, so this was, at first, a very daunting job. We were asked, as classroom teachers, to put on the waders and go into the pond to help collect the critters and plant life. I tend to shy away from "getting my hands dirty" so I must say that I was rather nervous with the whole idea. All that changed from the very moment I waded into that murky water. I was well aware of the fact that falling would not have been very prudent, so I was careful with my steps! Each time I entered the water for another "catch" I was more and more sure of myself, and, even my footing!

To say that I had fun would just not be enough. I will carry this experience with me forever, both as a teacher and as a human being living on this amazing planet! This experience truly reminds us of how small we really are in comparison to all the amazing life that exists in our environment and how big a role we really must play in conservation. I encourage everyone to be part of this wonderful experience!

Thank you, Mr. Hirschi!!

Lori Schnegg
5th grade teacher
St. Brigid of Kildare School
Dublin, Ohio

CONTACT RON

Get in touch by email at whalemail@waypoint.com Phone: 360-379-1729 Mail: PO Box 899 Hadlock, WA 98339 Visit amazon.com for a good listing of available books, but check my publishers for the best rates for school sales. Island Heritage/ Welcome to the Islands, Sylvan Dell, and Boyds Mills all are easy to work with and make it easy to do a fund raiser with books like Swimming with Humuhumu, Ocean Seasons, or Lions Tigers and Bears!!!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

WATERSHEDS



The Seabeck Salmon Team at Nick's Lagoon.





Here in Washington State there is a project called Salmon in the Classroom. Calling it Salmon IN the Classroom should be a tip off, a loud and clear message that this is not a good idea. I've been opposed to it since its inception, both as a biologist and as a teacher. My main concerns are that fish like salmon have no business spending time indoors. They were truly born to be wild. Learn a little about wild salmon ecology and you'll know that salmon in classrooms are started out as eggs stripped from hatchery fish, placed in tanks, taken to schools, raised for a while, then released into a stream. Typically, the stream they are released into is not their parent stream. Worse yet, the stream might be many watersheds away from the natal stream.

Often carrying fungal diseases into the stream after life in an aquarium, the salmon are let go with possible lethal effects on fish living in the receiving waters.

I do agree with the original thought behind this project. It is a wonderful notion to get kids excited about salmon. Letting them see fish develop from egg to kid salmon is a good thing.

My objection centers mainly on the fact that a far more exciting alternative exists throughout salmon country. I've not wanted to simply voice my opposition without working hard to see that kids take advantage of the alternative. Here are a couple of examples based on salmon streams, one on trout streams, and a couple related examples of good watershed teachings on midwestern streams, far from salmon waters.

I did a one day author visit at Seabeck Elementary in Seabeck, Washington about ten years ago. I showed slides and talked with the kids about water projects I'd gotten involved with in Ohio. A mom in the audience came up to me after the presentation and we talked a bit. She got excited about "doing something with the kids".

I asked if they ever took the kids to nearby Seabeck Creek. No. But they did raise salmon in the classroom, hatchery fish they released each year at a bridge crossing.
Long story very short, we started taking the kids to the stream about once a week and the mom and many other moms and dads started an after school "Salmon Team" somewhat like soccer or baseball. The kids showed up, but had to try out for the team. They also had to share what they learned with their classmates the day after our adventures in Seabeck Creek.

After a year of sampling salmon in Seabeck Creek, the kids became local experts and soon shared their knowledge at workshops, water celebrations, and salmon conservation group meetings. We started wandering away from Seabeck Creek during the second or third year of study and one of the kids and I stumbled on a small estuary. It was an enclosed lagoon fed by five springfed streams. I did a little research and discovered that virtually nothing was known about the largest of the streams and nothing at all was known about the smallest four. The lagoon itself was soon found to be a rearing place for juvenile salmon and I named it Nick's Lagoon after the boy who first discovered the beautiful little piece of water.

We started focusing a lot of attention on the lagoon and streams, naming each for kids in the Salmon Team. There was Muddy Marc Creek for the kid who got wet quicker and muddier faster than any I've ever worked with. Joe's Creek is a short run stream named for one of the best salmon finding kids around.

We carefully chronicled our findings, especially after discovering that chinook salmon swam into the lagoon from other streams, spending time there even though the adults did not visit its waters. This made the place highly valuable for many reasons. Juvenile rearing habitat is precious these days due to loss of habitat. Chinook are threatened species too. So, when the entire property surrounding the lagoon was listed for sale, we took action.

Teaming with the Trust for Public Land, Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe, and Kitsap County Parks, we raised the funds to purchase the property. This is all with thanks to the Seabeck Salmon Team. They could have sat back in the classroom and stared at fish in a tank, but their long road to saving a valuable habitat became an environmental award winning project. Nick's Lagoon is now preserved as a natural area park managed by the county and watched over by the kids and families who protected it.


More recently, I visited Breidablik Elementary, a school just north of Seabeck and a school (not the same building) my grandmother attended in the early 1900s. They too had a salmon in the classroom project and would place the fish in Jump Off Joe Creek, a stream that runs past the school and into nearby Hood Canal.

Learning about Nick's Lagoon and a little about salmon ecology, students and teachers at Breidablik started wondering what to do with their fish in the aquarium. they also started planning new projects - projects that would leave the salmon in the wild and take the kids OUT of the classroom.

In spring of 2009 they released their salmon in a more appropriate location within the watershed of the hatchery of origin. This was in Puget Sound, not Hood Canal. We also spent a day netting Jump Off Joe Creek and the shallows of Hood Canal at its mouth. Way too much fun, the kids soon became expert at handling the seine and at identifying fish.

We discoverd that Jump Off Joe already had a nice population of a small salmon most commonly called Cutthroat Trout. There is a good chance the cutthroat would have loved to see the salmon in the classroom dumped into their creek since cutthroat are predators of juvenile fish. Chances are good that the stream is too small to support other salmon species, but time will tell as we get to know the creek better by visiting it on a regular schedule, just as we did at Nick's Lagoon.


Any trout fisher will tell you that the Snake River is pretty much heaven. I get to fish the river fairly often, especially when visiting Wilson Elementary in Wilson, Wyoming. On my first author stop we took the fifth graders down to the big river and netted along side channels and along braids where it was safe to be in water with kids dragging a seine.

We worked on a Big Book (see my website) during that time and talked about doing more with the kids outside. The netting experience was what inspired our next adventure and offers a wonderful example for many schools around the country.

There's a tiny creek within walking distance of the school. Having the Snake River nearby more or less makes this piece of water invisible to anyone. Anyone, that is, other than a kid.

We visited this tiny Kid Creek with all the kids, netting with seine and hand held dip nets. The result? Inspired writing and art and a wealth of new knowledge about the stream, its history, and its future. The local land trust is now looking into ways of treating the stream and for sure, Wilson has found an outdoor learning lab right in their own backyard.


I can say that much of what I've done and will do with kids on waters all started with school visits in Ohio. I've taken several thousand kids seining in the Scioto, Darby, and other streams as well as into many ponds. The best of these projects is now connecting schools as we attempt to help kids see the connections in the Scioto/Ohio River Watershed.

Kids at Wyandot Elementary and St Brigid, both in Dublin have been doing some of the most creative watershed work. We started by seining in ponds on both school grounds. After a few years of documenting fish, invertebrates, and water quality in these headwater ponds, we took an ambitious approach in the spring of 2009.

Older kids can cover more ground than little ones and middle schoolers at St Brigid were up to the task of following a tributary to Indian Run Creek, itself a tributary to the Scioto. We followed the little creek, netting all the way, troubled by a lack of water and an abundance of litter. But we eventually traced the path of the creek all the way to its connection with Indian Run. And when we did, we looked upstream and there, in plain view was Wyandot Elementary School! We had followed the water and connected the dots to a partnering school.

Now, the two schools can compare notes on fish, water quality, and the many art and writing projects they have done related to the stream studies. Better yet, they can move on up and downstream to find ways of improving the water quality and connect with other schools in their watershed.

Each of the examples are at schools with streams within walking distance of the building. I'm often asked what to do during a school visit and I invariably ask if a stream flows nearby. Thanks to the examples of schools like Wilson, Wyandot, Breidablik, St Brigid, and others, I can point to some great ways schools use the experience. I know teachers take this learning back into the classroom. My job is to take the kids OUT of the classroom and definitely, to leave the salmon where they belong --- in a stream where we can watch over their well being.

KINDERGARTEN



Kids keep me inspired, but after many years working with them, it is the Kindergarteners who keep me coming back to schools to learn with them.

The photo above was taken just after several kindergarteners waded into the shallows of Indian Run Creek. Wearing those cute little lady bug boots and armed with tiny nets, several of them caught crayfish. Some even landed dazzling Rainbow Darters, some of the most beautiful fish on the planet. But the fish and "lobsters" weren't the prize that day.

If you look closely, you can see this young man proudly showing off his catch - a golf ball. He was so excited and well he should be. He found something he could take home. A treasure he will remember long after the thrill of scooping up a fish is forgotten.

I could fill the eworld with kstories. Here are a couple of my favorites.

When I first started working in schools, I'd often circle up the kids in the library and show some slides of animals I work with in the wild. At the time of a visit to an Olympia, Washington school, I'd just finished a book about geese. I told the kids about how some geese were super parents and some were not so great. In fact, some geese readily give up their kids to other adults.

One of the boys in the kindergarten class I was talking with stood up when I was finished and all the other kids turned to him and immediately became very quiet. Apparently, they were used to his presence. His story telling abilities. His command of the room. He very politely asked if he could share a story about a bird. It was an Australian myth about how the birds got their colors. Young Rem kept us, me especially, in awe as he wove the tale so well and so long I completely forgot I was listening to a five year old. He could just as well have been 85.

On completing his story, Rem was appointed to take me to another class to continue my day in the building. The other kindergarteners went back to their room and when we got into the hall, Rem shook my sleeve and asked me to stop.

He looked up and down the hall to make sure no one was in sight. "They don't know what to do with me here," he said, still looking up and down the hallway.

"They put me in fifth grade for math. Fourth grade is for social studies. Third grade I go to sometimes too."

He added that he was a kindergartener, so obsiously, he had to spend time in kindergarten.

Then, with a twinkle in his eye, Rem told me the greater truth of his situation, "What I really like is First Grade because I really like First Grade Girls!!!"


I met another genius last spring. Her name is Evelyn. I spent a little time with her and her classmates during a bit of a break during a day of field trips and in building celebration of Earth Day.

I do this thing with kids that is probably my most popular activity. It comes up at lots of moments, especially when we are making books together. I'll look at what they are writing about or listen to them as they trouble over an illustration. If asked to draw something, instead, I carve an eraser into a small stamp so they can use the image over and over. I sometimes get lumpy bumpy packages in the mail filled with an entire classroom, or even an entire school's worth of erasers awaiting carving into dolphins, dogs, and seahorses.

Evelyn watched that day as I started carving stamps for kids. Since it was spring, a lot of the kids wanted flowers. They're fun to carve and we were on a roll with enough flowers to make a nice wildflower illustration.

Evelyn kept watching and talking about possible stamps for her ideas. After much thought, she announced, "An olive. Olives are plants. I'd like an olive."

I carved her an olive, the first one I'd ever done. Not many kindergarteners, when given the choice of rubber stamps would give up the chance of having a penguin or tulip and go to the idea of an olive. But Evelyn wasn't finished thinking this over.

She stamped the olive, saw it was nice and politely offered it to a friend who gladly accepted it, saying the olive would look nice with her flowers.

Olive skrinkled up her face and scratched her head a bit before letting me know, "A jar of Olive Oil. That's what I want, a jar of Olive Oil!"

I've made, conservatively, 5,000 rubber stamps for kids and adults. The range of images is actually quite narrow and mostly includes fish, bears, horses, penguins, whales, dolphins.......I never had so much fun attempting to carve the details into a stamp. Evelyn coached me as we designed the label and foil for the cap. A jar of olive oil on a pink pearl eraser. Who'd imagine that. Evelyn.

You can read about Evelyn at my other blog site. She is the person responsible for asking me a list of questions that helped form much of our journey to Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in June 2009. She is the inspiration for Project Soar and made it possible to encourage people from around the world to send sand samples to me for close looks at plastics gone micro along our ocean shores.

I'm told by Evelyn's teachers that instead of walking straight down the halls of her school, she walks sideways. She scans the walls as she walks, taking in all information. I hope to work with her again in the near future and look forward to what wondrous things she does for the world.

Kindergarteners can always make me laugh. They can always come up with the goofiest stories. But I think we really need to listen to them closely so as not to miss those few out there with a lot to say, a lot to pay attention to. One thing is for sure. They are taking in so much more information than any of us could ever imagine. Since the little buggers are so new to the world, they might just find the ways to make it better.

If you have a kindergarten story, please add a comment here!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Most Beautiful Place on Earth



Aspens along the Snake River sooth most souls. This photo was taken as I made my way down river to visit Wilson Elementary in Wilson, Wyoming. One of my all time favorite schools, it is home to a supportive staff and group of parents as well as a bunch of kids surrounded by some of the most spectacular wilderness remaining in our country. It is easy to walk from the school and see a moose, catch trout, and even see a cougar or grizzly.

Is Wilson, Wyoming and the Greater Yellowstone/Grand Teton area the most beautiful on earth?

My friend Trevor Atkins thinks we should ask kids to take a look around and see how each and every one of them lives in the most beautiful place. He and I have vowed to make this idea a goal in the coming school year --- to help kids see the local beauty and to help in the restoration of places in need of rekindling ancient natural features.

My focus in this is not all that different from how I've viewed previous school years. I try to encourage kids to love their surroundings by taking them out to small streams, ponds, and shorelines. We net fish and other water life and look closely at the beauty in nature.

Water. In Hawaiian, the word is Wai. Recognizing the depth of its importance, Hawaiians also know the word Wai to mean Wealth.....What are we without water. No wealth could sustain without the most precious of all earth's resources.

I love to do this one simple thing, especially when far from the sea. Take a child by the hand and lead him or her to a tiny stream. Lean down and touch the water, then let them know where it flows, asking if they are aware of the path that water takes, all the way into the mouth of whales in distant seas. There is instant magic.

Netting fish, observing invertebrates, and taking water quality measurements are all good science. As a biologist, I can help schools set up watershed projects with this science at its heart. I've learned to bring soulful art projects into this mix and am always searching for new ways to help kids express themselves through art and writing.

If you teach, ask for information about Trevor's projects in Hawaii and my projects there and on the mainland, as well as in other countries. I'll set up projects that can include art and writing contests to see just who does have the Most Beautiful Place on Earth as their school ground, home, or community.

What makes a place so beautiful. The golden aspen leaves make it easy for all to see. But if you go out into a small stream almost anywhere in America, I know you will find a way to gaze into something far more beautiful and some place you can visit each and every day. We owe it to all our kids to find that place and to help them protect or restore its special beauty.

To help find connections in these places, I continue to work to bring schools together, up and down streams, especially along the Scioto and Ohio River in Ohio; Snake River in Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington; and along coastal reaches of the Salish Sea in Washington.

Get in touch to connect with these and other projects.