Want a class tailored to your needs and schedule?
Sammy the Salmon will kick off this event describing the life cycle of salmon and the habits and habitat requirements of NW Salmon and trout.
During this educational and fun “watershed” event, students will learn stream and wetland ecology terms that will give them a jump ahead on their classmates at school. Students will role-play as polluters causing water quality problems and as a team explore solutions.
Everyone will get a hands-on introduction to the bottom of the fish food chain – aquatic insects collected from our local pond. Next, the class will go on a field trip to North Creek for an introduction to native plant identification and to learn why forests and wetlands are critical to salmon and wildlife habitat.
This very interactive and experiential learning class will conclude with a video introduction to students who have “adopted” a local stream and restored is salmon run…and a challenge for all participants to become Streamkeepers who take actions to protect their local streams.
Age Recommendation: This event is most popular with elementary and middle school students; a more advance high school curriculum is available.
Ever wonder what specific insects are flying around your home? Come to the Insect Safari and join Naturalist Tom Murdoch who will show you how to use a “sweep net” and an “aerial net” that you will use to capture insects around the Northwest Stream Center. Then, you will gently place the captured insects on a sheet (yes…a bed sheet) so that you can see them easily. Naturalists will then help you identify the different types of insects and stages of their life.
In advance of the “safari adventure” you will be provided an insect basic training lecture about the habits and habitat requirements of terrestrial insects and their benefits to the ecology of the Pacific Northwest.
This event is fun for kids and adults.
Date: You can schedule this event during the week…as the days get longer in the summer your time slot can extend into the late afternoon! This is most fun in late spring and through the summer.
Pacific Chorus Frogs are “singing a tune”, and Salamanders are on the move at the Northwest Stream Center!
These fascinating amphibians come in many sizes and colors and their lifestyles are just as amazing.
Join us for a lively presentation and see these creatures on the Northwest Stream Center big screen.
Learn interesting facts about some of our most interesting residents who live double lives — one in the water and one on the land. Best time to see “egg masses is February through April”… lots of frog tadpoles and baby salamanders through Spring and Summer … adults in the Fall!!
This program will introduce you to the connections between healthy watersheds, wetlands, wildlife, fish and aquatic insects. Aquatic insects are important indicators of wetland health and water quality, as well as vital parts of the wetland food chain. They are also beautiful and fascinating, as anyone watching dragonflies skimming the surface of a pond on a summer’s day will attest. There will be a live exhibition of critters from the Northwest Stream Center resident pond, so you can view first-hand the insects that live in our local ponds and learn about their life cycles and habitats.
Age Recommendation: Grade 1 to Adult.
Join us for a walk in the woods and native plant gardens around the Northwest Stream Center. Naturalists will teach you how to identify native plants you are likely to encounter in the area — perhaps even in your own back yard! Learn why native plant buffers are critical to salmon and wildlife habitat, and how Native Americans made use of plants for building materials, food, and medicine.
Date: While this event is generally scheduled during the week, with advance notice it can be scheduled on weekends as well.
For: Stream/Wetland landowners, educators, land use planners, real estate agents/appraisers, lawyers, and anyone else interested in stream and wetland ecology.
Learn watershed terminology used by the scientific community.
Understand the functions and values of wetlands, how they are defined by the agencies, and how to distinguish between different types of wetlands.
Discover how streams function and their relationships between forests, wetlands, underwater insects, fish, wildlife, and people.
Explore a fundamental question: How close can you build to a stream without affecting salmon?
Familiarize yourself with the latest federal, state, and local government stream and wetland protection regulations; pending enforcement procedures; and the potential for citizen initiated legal actions in conjunction with the Endangered Species and Clean Water Acts.
Class includes a stream and wetland field trip. Materials provided include: portions of Adopting A Stream A NW Handbook, Adopting A Wetland: A NW Guide; and graphics from the Streamkeepers Field Guide: Watershed Inventory and Stream Monitoring Methods.
Nexus Credit Option from Washington State Bar Association.
Northwest Forest and salmon are intertwined. The Forest softens the effects of heavy rain, and provides underlying organic duff that slowly filters rainfall into the ground moderating stream flows.
Forests also provide shade that keeps air temperature cool above streams. That cool air keeps water temperature cool. And cold water hold lots of oxygen.
Salmon need cool clean well-oxygenated streams in which to spawn new generations.
Salmon are ecosystem engineers who bring nutrients into fresh water streams from the sea that provide for the needs of the forest and the wildlife that live in surrounding watershed.
Thanks to bears, wolfs, coyotes, racoons, eagles, ravens and crows and other animals nutrients from the salmon are transported far beyond the trees next to streams into the forests beyond.
At this event, you can see the fragile connection between salmon, bears, trees and people in NW rainforest in a wonderful 45 minute film called the Salmon Forest. After the film that is narrated by Dr. David Suzuki, you will be joined by Adopt A Stream Foundation Ecologists. They will take you for an interpretive walk on the Northwest Stream Center’s brand new Elevated Nature Walk where you will learn more about the interconnections between forests, wetland, streams, fish, wildlife and people…and see the Adopt A Stream Foundation’s Salmon Forest!