Wednesday, November 16, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
9
Students study life of the Metolius
By Jim Anderson
Correspondent
On Wednesday, November
2, three small buses rolled
up to the parking area at
Riverside Campground on
the Metolius. With much glee
and anticipation, 45 middle
schoolers and their teachers
— all from Cascade Academy
in Tumalo — bailed out of the
buses to meet their leader of
the day, Kolleen Miller, edu-
cation director of the Upper
Deschutes Watershed Council
based in Bend.
Even with the morning sun
it was pretty chilly, only in the
high 30s, as Miller told them
what they were going to do.
She warned them not to get
too carried away and acciden-
tally end up in the river, which
is very cold all year long, the
way native fish like it.
They were going to be col-
lecting macroinvertebrates
to determine whether or not
the spring-fed Metolius is
really healthy for native fish.
The students were also going
to study and make detailed
drawings of the riparian area,
plus identify trees, shrubs,
and wetland grasses.
Tom Walker, fish biolo-
gist with the Forest Service,
was also on hand to share
his knowledge of the habitat
PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
Biology teacher Dr. Anne Marie Eklund helping students identify
macrvoinvertebrates.
needs of sockeye spawning
in the Metolius and return-
ing to the Pacific Ocean, and
kokanee that live out their life
in Suttle Lake.
Another goal was to pro-
vide the students with an
opportunity to observe similar
organs in fish that they have
in their bodies, a subject that
really opened many of the stu-
dents’ eyes and minds. Sixth-
grader Fiona Fenstermacher
was still talking about her
experience long after lunch,
“I really liked dissecting the
salmon, it was pretty cool to
see the fish’s heart, liver and
kidneys, and to learn they use
their nose for smelling what’s
around them same as we do.”
Dr. Anne Marie Eklund,
biology teacher at the Cascade
Academy, was in her glory
when the students began to
collect macroinvertebrates
from the gravel bottom of the
river. At one point, they paired
up, one with a collecting net,
the other carefully disturbing
the bottom upstream of the
net, causing the water flow to
carry specimens into the net.
Back on shore the contents
were placed in a large, white
shallow pan after which stu-
dents gathered around and
began to separate the various
invetebrates and place them in
PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
Adin Lyders and Mckenzie Lattig counting macroinvertebrates.
a plastic egg dish for ID and
counting.
Seventh-grader Solomon
Garner spent much of his time
peering at specimens through
a water-filled magnifier, call-
ing out the species he got to
know well: cadisfly, mayfly,
riffle beetles, stonefly and
others.
Using the time allotted
for each segment of the stud-
ies, teacher Becca Schroder
took the students for a short
hike downstream from the
area where they were work-
ing on macroinvertebrates,
and invited them to a find a
spot — a quiet place of his
or her very own where they
could look around them, and
put their thoughts on paper
using the the acrostic method
of poetry.
This is the way Miller saw
the day she had with the stu-
dents: “It was great to work
with Cascades Academy
middle school kids on the
river today. My own son is
in middle school right now,
and he and I both often get
pulled into the social dramas
that can permeate the life of a
13-year-old.
“Today though, on the
beautiful Metolius River,
these students were given the
time to just sit and be them-
selves outside. They walked
on logs and waded in the
river. They sat by the river-
side, sketched the riffles and
the ripples of the water and
shared their thoughts in their
poems. Surrounded by the
clean air of the forest, they
just got to be kids getting to
know the natural parts of the
world they live in.”