WSU Stream Stewards

Registration for the Fall 2019 class is FULL. Please  contact the program coordinator to be put on a wait list.

Learn about stream ecology, salmon, forests, water quality, and habitat restoration in the classroom and field. After the course volunteer 40 hours on a water related project of your choosing. Contact Laurel Moulton with questions at: laurel.moulton@wsu.edu.

2019 Course Description

 

This 6-week course combines classroom presentations by regional experts with field trips around the Olympic Peninsula focusing on the rivers and streams that flow into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Dates: Thursdays, October 10, 17, 24, 31 ; Nov. 7 and 14, 2019

Time: 9:00 am to 4:30 pm each day.

Cost: $25

Location: Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe Red Cedar Hall, located at 1033 Old Blyn Highway. Afternoons will be field trips to a variety of locations around the Peninsula including Discovery Bay, Blyn, Sequim and Port Angeles. Classes conclude at 4:30 pm from each day’s field trip location.

 

Topics include:

• Stream and watershed ecology
• Restoring local streams
• Tribal treaty rights and natural resource management
• Native plants and forest ecology
• All about salmon
• Protecting and conserving watersheds
• Role of citizen science in restoration

Participants in this course receive comprehensive, science-based training and become stewards, citizen scientists, and educators in the local community. Instructor come from a wide range of local and regional agencies and organizations.

The fun continues after the class

Following the class, WSU Stream Stewards commit to volunteering 40 hours for local water-related programs with WSU Extension, or another of our partner organizations such as the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, Jefferson or Clallam Conservation Districts, the Dungeness River Audubon Center, Streamkeepers, or the Jefferson or North Olympic Land Trust and others. Activities include stream monitoring, restoring native habitats, environmental education and more.

What you will learn

Stream Ecology A stream is so much more than running water. Wading in a stream will be a whole new world after you learn about stream flows, shifting streambeds, potential pollutants,  macroinvertebrates, and riparian ecology.

Salmon biology management and recovery  Salmon is the quintessential Pacific Northwest species. But what do you really know about them (besides how delicious they are to eat)? Join our enthusiastic experts as we watch salmon return to local creeks to spawn.

Conservation and restoration strategies How do we protect natural habitats and productive working lands in perpetuity? Perpetuity is a long time! Get the insiders view of how this can be accomplished and how you can get involved.

Volunteer projects

Stream Stewards continues the WSU Beach Naturalist and Master Gardener tradition of volunteering in the community. You could help with salmon spawning surveys; take water quality samples; help install rain gardens; hobnob with tourists and friends at the annual festivals and more!

Three ways to apply for the Fall 2019 class

• 2019 registration is FULL. Please contact the program coordinator to be put on a wait list.

Special note

Because this program is funded by a grant in 2018 and 2019, we are able to offer it for only $25 – making this a great time to sign up!

This program is funded in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement PC-01J22301 through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The program contents do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency or the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Questions?

Email:  laurel.moulton@wsu.edu