The Clackamas print., June 03, 1992, Page 9, Image 9

FEATURE
June 3,1992
THE CLACKAMAS PRINT
Page 5
Field trip gives students opportunity to use scientific knowledge
by Daphne Hartt
Staff Writer
CCC Geology Instructor John
Snively and Biology Instructor
Bob Misely recently led a group
of students to Malheur National
Refuge, which is located in South­
eastern Oregon.
About thirty students, each
from some type of science class,
joined Snively and Misely on the
four-day excursion. Although the
trip was mainly arranged for
Snively’s bird identification class,
students from his geology class
and Misely’s biology class were
welcome to come.
The Malheur trip, which could
be taken as a one-credit course,
was used as a learning tool for
students. It was an opportunity to
use their classroom knowledge
to identify and study the history,
geology, plant and animal life of
the area.
The cost of the trip was $7550
per person. These funds provided
the group with food and lodging
at Malheur Field Station.
Adam Bays, a CCC geology
and bird i.d. student, just came
back from his fourth trip with
Snively. So far, he has gone on a
geology trip to an area over by
Kah-Nee-Ta, Death Valley,
Malheur National Refuge, and
last weekend, Klamath Falls.
Bays thouroughly enjoys
himself on every trip. When asked
why he went to Malheur, he re­
plied, * To look at the birds and
just get away from people.”
“ These kind of trips open
your eyes to what is out in the
world. Sometimes people get so
busy, they forget what is out
there. My highlights of the trip
were seeing the Bittern, an amaz­
ing bind, and country dancing with
the group.”
Shawn Dachtler, a CCC
geology student, also went on the
Malheur expedition. He com­
ments, “It was a great opportu­
nity for me. You can learn all the
technical information out of a
book, but then everything makes
sense once you are out there,
actually seeing it. It is then that
you can accept and believe it.”
The itinerary of the Malheur
trip included a trip to Diamond
Diamond Crater is a geo­
logic depression which formed
when molten basalt spilled from
deep cracks in the earth. These
cracks, called fissures, caused
the seeping liquid to flood a rela­
tively dry lake bed, producing a
thin layer composed of basalt.
Then another seepage occured
which created six structural domes.
These domes, South, Central,
North, West, Northeast, andGra-
ben Domes, now protrude from
the depths of the crater. Geolo­
gists estimate that all this took
place within the last 25,000 years.
Since Snively has been guid­
ing this trip for over fifteen years,
"It was a great opportunity for me. You
can learn all the technical information out
of a book, but then everything makes
sense once you are out there, actually
seeing it. It is then that you can accept
and believe it."
-Shawn Dachtler
Crater, which is 55 miles South­
east of Bums, Oregon, birding
and studying geological forma­
tions and plant life on the refuge,
and also a day at Fish Lake.
Dachtler felt that Diamond
Crater was the best part of the
trip. He comments, “Walking
through the explosion craters at
Diamond Crater was great I
wanted to see some of the geo­
logic formations in nature, not
just in a book.”
he knows the area very well.
Every year, he has at least two to
three returning students who want
to join him on the trip again. For
example, bird Ld. student Bill
Guthrie, has been on almost every
kind of trip that Snively has led.
Besides the Malheur trip,
Snively organizes others such as
the Death Valley trip and the
Klamath Falls trip. During Spring
Break, about twenty-five students,
including myself, ventured down
to Death Valley, in which we
stayed for about nine days.
Last weekend, about twenty-
five students drove with Snively
to Klamath Falls to study the
geology andplantlifeof the area,
along with a lot of time spent on
birding.
photos by John Snively