Environmental

Stewardship

By: Isabella Van Ness

Chimacum Creek Watershed!

This school year we studied Chimacum Valleys watershed. We looked at 3D watershed models. We also did fish trapping in Chimacum Creek. Another thing we did while studying our watershed was plant trees along the creek at Finnriver Farm. NOSC came to our school to show us macros and teach us more about salmon wich tied in with our study of the watershed. Last we did but not least we did water quality testing in Chimacum Creek!

Fish Trapping

In October and November we did fish trapping!

We fish trapped at Chimacum creek, we were so lucky to have a creek so close to our school we could walk to it! We trapped 6 Coho, 3 Rainbow Trout, 6 Cutthroat, 4 Crayfish, 5 Stickleback, and 1 Sculpin! Table teams took turns putting traps out each week. We used Crayfish traps to trap the fish, we put the traps in the water with a rope connecting the trap to a branch and we would check them the next day and count the fish.

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Benthic Macroinvertebrates!

NOSC came to our school and showed us macros from Chimacum creek! In our creek we found Stoneflies, Mayflies, Caddisflies, Dobsonflies, Alderflies, Midges, Scud, Sow Bugs, Aquatic Worms, Tubifex Worms, Flat Worms, and Black Flies. We got to use microscopes.

Water Quality Testing!

This spring we did water quality testing at Chimacum creek! We tested 6 parameters in the creek. The 6 parameters we tested were pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature, Turbidity, Flow Rate, and Conductivity. We compared the data we got to past years.

Tree Planting!

In May we went to Finnriver Farm to plant trees along the creek. NOSC was there to help and show us what to do. There was 3 stations, one station was potting trees, another station was planting trees by the creek, one more station was a food web model. The food web model was a game where everyone sat in a circle and was assigned to a animal, one animal would start and they would have to pick another animal in the circle that they were related to and then the string (web) would get passed to that animal or person and so on.

Chimacum Creeks health!

After testing the quality of the water and how many fish it has we concluded that Chimacum Creek is healthy! There are a healthy amount of fish and macros!

Invasive Weed Removal!

In garden class we pulled out invasive plants! We have garden class every Monday. We cleared the invasive plants by the creek and the hatchery that we are no longer using. We used long and short clipper things to cut the vines and then we used shovels to dig out the hearts. We also learned about poison oak during the clearing of the invasive weeds.

I would like to thank NOAA for sponsoring our school. Without NOAA we would not be an Ocean Guardian School! I would also like to thank Mr.Gonzalez for teaching us all these things like how to test the water quality and fish trap and so much more! Last but not least I would like to thank NOSC! NOSC helped us plant trees at finnriver and NOSC came to our school to show us macros!

References and Acknowledgements!

The End!

Thank you for watching and listening to my final presentation! I am so excited that are school gets the privilege of being an Ocean Guardian school!