Education & Outreach
Methow Salmon’s education programs increase community awareness of the efforts underway to recover salmon and their habitat in the Methow Valley and the Upper Columbia. Enhancing our local watershed stewardship ethic is key aspect of these efforts and a central component in improving fish habitat.
Our youth and adult education efforts address a wide range of topics, including
- Promoting awareness of the ecology and health of the Methow watershed;
- Engaging local school children in watershed stewardship through engagement in active, first person habitat restoration;
- Integrating arts into watershed stewardship;
- Fostering local awareness and responsibility of watershed health;
- Recognizing that social and community health, such as jobs, economic sustainability, and civic responsibility are inseparable from the health of the Methow River watershed..
River’s Reach Podcast
River’s Reach, Conversations from the Upper Columbia is a podcast out of Central Washington developed by the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board. The podcast aims to shed light on salmon and steelhead recovery and forest health restoration through conversations with key voices in the region.
Methow Salmon’s Aquatic Ecologist John Crandall goes underwater to sharing the unique view from below in Underwater in the Methow feat
Alexa Whipple, Director of Methow Beaver Project, and Matt Young, Fisheries Biologist with Colville Confederated Tribes discuss Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) in A Dam Practical Restoration Method .
Salmon In & Out of the Classroom – Grade 6
Our Salmon In and Out of the Classroom program combines outdoor environmental education with in-class learning. This innovative curriculum brings local aquatic ecologists into our 6thgrade classrooms to teach students about salmon recovery, habitat restoration, and watershed stewardship. As part of this program, students raise salmon eggs in an in-class aquarium, enabling them to observe the growth process of young salmon from egg to alevin to fry.
The outdoor portion of the program takes students on several field outings, including snorkeling at a stream habitat restoration project on the Chewuch River, as well as water quality, stream, and riparian habitat data collection at a project site. These hands-on field opportunities help the students determine the most appropriate location to release the young fish reared in their classroom tanks.
The curriculum culminates in a facilitated “town hall” meeting where students representing various salmon recovery stakeholders discuss and debate a hypothetical salmon recovery scenario. They learn to familiarize themselves with a variety of perspectives, to effectively express opinions, to engage in real-time problem solving, and to work to reach practical solutions through collaboration and compromise.
Watershed Watchers – Grades K-12
Watershed Watchers connects students with local ecosystems through expeditionary learning in natural riparian settings at two of Methow Salmon’s habitat restoration projects.
The program brings together students with local scientists and habitat restoration practitioners to explore the natural diversity of the Methow watershed. Watershed Watchers students study a variety of subject areas including aquatic ecology, natural history, species identification and life histories, hydrology, and water quality.
This scientifically based curriculum is supplemented with artistic activities including botanical drawing, natural art creation, and storytelling. These activities take place within the context of active, large-scale stream and riparian habitat restoration projects aimed at improving watershed health and habitat conditions for endangered and threatened fish species.
Students learn about riparian plantings at the Twisp Ponds project site. A bronze swirl of wasps rising above four aluminum cast salmon provide an artistic backdrop for the lessons.
Educational Publications
Methow Salmon has published several field guides and informational brochures related to fish natural history, lamprey ecology, and habitat restoration. These materials are produced locally and involve partnerships with many individuals and organizations working on salmon recovery in the Methow Valley.
Get Involved
Our education programs are designed to align with current Washington State K-12 science standards as well as the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum now used by schools in the Methow Valley. The integration of these standards with the curriculum allows educators to easily blend our programs into their lesson plans.
If you are interested in bringing one of our programs to your classroom or would like to get involved as an educator, please email msrf@methowsalmon.org.
