Cascade School District’s Home Link classes take deep dive into local river issues

On a chilly morning, Home Link elementary and middle school students and their teacher Shanda Holm were bundled and excited for a tour of the Tumwater Dam, led by Chelan PUD senior fish biologist Catherin Willard and civil engineer Justin Fletcher. This field trip was one of several this fall for the experiential education class, which has been studying river ecology, and key for the social studies class as it learns about the many stakeholder perspectives around river usage and conservation.

The dam was built in 1906 to power the railroad and never used for powering homes. Now its primary purpose is for mitigation of the negative impacts on fish of the other dams along the Columbia River. Congress mandated mitigation in 1980 when it passed the Northwest Power Act. Subsequently, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) added a fish ladder to the Tumwater Dam. The location is where biologists collect salmon and steelhead for the hatchery programs that bolster the numbers of fish, mitigating for increased fish mortality when fish pass Rocky Reach Dam and Rock Island Dam.

The Yakama Nation Fisheries also uses the Tumwater Dam as one location of reintroduction of coho. Indigenous coho salmon went extinct in the mid and upper Columbia River basins due to hydropower projects and other factors, but they are coming back with these reintroduction efforts.

The students learned about fish counting, which can be done manually as they go through a detour and automatically for the many fish that have a PIT (passive integrated transponder) tag imbedded subdermally behind their eye.

The students walked through the gate and down the metal stairs to a large platform to view, up close, the dam and the water rushing over it.

Fletcher pointed below the dam to where a repair will occur next year once after the permitting process is complete. The Wenatchee River here is steep, and when the flow is high, it moves rocks, causing erosion below the dam. The project will fortify the eroded zone with concrete. The last rehab on the dam was about 25 years ago.

Holm pointed out a measuring device in the river by the platform, encouraging the students to ponder what is being measured. After a moment to think, they came up with ideas about the height of the water and the rate of flow.

The children enjoyed going up and down the steps of the wide metal walkway, mimicking what salmon would do below, where the fish ladder is, each step matching the one above. To reinforce concepts and to keep kids moving and warm, Holm challenged the students with a spontaneous game to “go find” one of the steps that had a PIT tag reader below it, which Willard had pointed out earlier.

Willard then showed the class where fish are trapped and pulled out, either for hatchery collection, or for measuring weight, length, noting sex and fish origin (hatchery or wild) and taking a scale sample. The students knew from their studies that the annuli, or growth rings, on scales can be used to determine age.

Lifting a few smaller students up to peer inside empty holding tanks (for fish bound to become hatchery broodstock), Holm made the class connect the dots between their learning and what they were seeing.

“Why are there rules about the number of fish in the holding tank for given water temperature?” Because warmer water temperatures can be harmful to fish.

“Why is cold water important?” Because cold water holds more oxygen.

“If they can pump more oxygen into the holding tanks, how do fish get the oxygen they need in the river?” After a pause, the students figured out that rapids, with their frothing water, add oxygen to the river.

Holm has done extraordinary work to help her students dive deep into how river ecology, resource use and indigenous cultural heritage intersect. For the social studies class for grades 4^_8, the students have been learning the perspectives of various stakeholder groups, including the Yakama Nation, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Chelan PUD, American Whitewater and Cascadia Fisheries. Representatives from each of these organizations gave presentations to the class.

“Students did research by first-person interviews and follow-up interviews and using a textbook that was compiled from articles collected from each of the stakeholder groups,” explained Holm. “On December 5, students will present their stakeholder positions to Representative Keith Goehner. He will then discuss how he uses stakeholder meetings to help inform him about how we use and manage our natural resources. 

“Students were very nervous about presenting to Representative Goehner. When I shared with them that he is an orchardist/farmer, the students seemed to relax, and one student said, ‘Oh. I can talk to an orchardist, no problem.’”

The experiential education class, for grades K through 8, took a prior field trip to the Rocky Reach Dam, releasing lamprey with the Yakama Nation and the Beaver Valley School They had a float trip on the Wenatchee River, learning about salmon spawning surveys and fecundity studies with WDFW, and participated in snorkeling and macro invertebrate studies with Cascadia Fisheries.

These applied learning experiences couldn’t have happened without financial support that Holm sought out and acquired. “We received a grant from the Community Foundation of North Central Washington and Confluence Health to help with the transportation for field trips and allowed us to bring Mary Big Bull Lewis [sharing the importance of salmon in p’squosa heritage] into the classroom during Native American Heritage Month. Orion Rafting donated the boats and gear needed for on the water and in the water activities.”

The Home Link students have gained a profound understanding of the Wenatchee River watershed, and how it is an essential natural resource at the heart of many competing needs. When the students hold their upcoming mock stakeholders meeting, they’ll use critical thinking and communication skills to grapple with how to balance those needs.