The Enterprise - White Salmon, Washington

Students participate in Gorge environmental program

On Klickitat River

September 04, 2012

The Klickitat River hosted enthusiastic and curious teenagers recently as they hiked, biked, and rafted over 50 miles of the watershed.

Students from Lyle, The Dalles, Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle traveled the watershed by foot, paddle, and bike August 20-24 in a new summer program seeking to make environmental science, management, and engineering come alive for high school students.

Cascade Mountain Semester, a project of the Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute, hosted its fourth and final outdoor program of its Summer 2012 season along the Klickitat watershed, leading students on a scientific adventure that started on the Yakama Nation Reservation at Bird Lake and ended at the Columbia in Lyle.

Throughout the week, students met and worked with a variety of scientists and natural resource managers to gain a deeper understanding of the natural functions of the watershed.

Students learned about glaciers and the importance of their continued existence as they hiked through snowfields and Bird Creek Meadows on Mt. Adams.

Students talked with Yakama Nation managers to learn forest and fire management strategies and met with Mt. Adams Resource Stewards to understand the complexities of forestry decisions.

Students even got to mill a log with Fred Paxton at the Mt. Adams Lumber Company in Trout Lake before setting off on their mountain biking and rafting portion of the trip.

Just outside of Glenwood, students met with Columbia Land Trust to investigate a stretch of the road removal project designed to improve salmon habitat.

One student remarked: "It's everything I'd ever want to do outside in one week!"

A similar multi-sport environmental science adventure ran on the Hood River watershed earlier in the summer in collaboration with Portland-based schools.

Students were able to receive high school biology credit for their participation. Cascade Mountain Semester will run the programs again next year.

Scholarships were provided for many of the students.

For more information, contact Emily Goodwin 503-358-1949 or visit the website: http://cascademountainsemester.wordpress.com.