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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2022)
Applegater Summer 2022 7 NONPROFIT NEWS AND UPDATES Hop aboard the Steamboat Time Travel Trail BY LAURA AHEARN Sixth-grade students from Wilson Elementary gather to learn about macroinvertebrate collection and identification along the Applegate River. Photo: Eva King. Getting outside with APWC BY EVA KING The Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council (APWC) has been working hard to get kids outside. Through partnerships and community collaboration, APWC offered a variety of environmental education endeavors over the last year and plans to expand their educational offerings for next year to serve more students and offer more choices. In partnership with Ruch Outdoor Community School (ROCS), APWC conducted its Grow Youth program, an ongoing restoration and tree tracking project at Cantrall Buckley Park. Every Friday since fall 2021, the ROCS middle school elective class, Applegate Stewards, went to the park to stake and mark native regrowth species along the Applegate River. APWC removed a considerable amount of invasive blackberries that were suffocating the streamside vegetation. This work cleared space for the native flora to grow and made room for more native trees to be planted. Using bamboo sticks, the students staked out these native trees and marked them with metal ID tags. Using forestry tools, such as calipers, the students measured the diameter of each tree and tracked its growth. As this is an ongoing project for youth foresters in our community, APWC and ROCS ask those visiting Cantrall Buckley Park to please respect these items. APWC also carried out its Applegate Outdoor Day program in partnership with ROCS. As part of their outdoor school experience, sixth-grade students from Kennedy, Lone Pine, Washington, and Wilson Elementary schools took part in three days of outdoor, inquiry- based science education in the Applegate Valley. ROCS hosted two of the three instructional days. One day consisted of various activities on the ROCS campus, such as archery, bird watching, and fire ecology. The other day included a natural history hike to the Bigfoot trap along the Collings Mountain Trail. APWC facilitated the third day at Cantrall Buckley Park. During Applegate Outdoor Day, students engaged in hands-on learning experiences related to the Applegate watershed. They learned about ecosystem services provided by riparian areas and planted willow cuttings along the river. Under careful supervision, students tested the water quality of the Applegate River and made inferences relating to its overall health. (Pretty healthy, turns out.) Students also got up close and personal with salmon specimens provided by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Creating a model, students depicted the salmon life cycle and the various factors contributing to the decline in salmon populations. Lastly, students put on rubber boots and collected their own macroinvertebrate specimens from the river. Students then learned how to identify these creatures and categorized them into groups based on pollution tolerance. Overall, students got a whole-picture approach to the health and interconnectedness of the Applegate watershed and its inhabitants. APWC also has plans to launch its new Applegate Outdoor School Program in the spring of 2023. This program will be designed and implemented by APWC staff. It will cater to fifth- and sixth-grade students from various school districts in Jackson and Josephine Counties. Applegate Outdoor School Program will consist of three consecutive field days at various sites within the Applegate watershed. It will also include pre- and post-classroom visits to boost student engagement and evaluate the program’s efficacy. The goal of this program is to offer more outdoor school opportunities for local students, as there is a need for additional high-quality outdoor school sites in our region. APWC will be hiring instructors for spring 2023. Candidates for these positions should have a background in environmental education, science, or natural history, and have documented experience working with students in an outdoor setting. Registration for this program will open in the fall. Visit applegatepartnership.com to learn more. Eva King eva@apwc.info Join McKee Bridge Historical Society (MBHS) on Saturday, June 11, for an adventure on the Steamboat Time Travel Trail! Participants should check in at McKee Bridge between 10:30-11 am. We’ll have a brief ceremony to dedicate the new interpretive panel, which lays out the evolution of transportation in the Upper Applegate and the survival story of McKee Bridge, then start a self-directed tour of the historic nooks and crannies of Big Applegate, The Time Travel Trail starts at McKee Bridge. Carberry, Steamboat, and Thompson Creek. The course is 39 miles over well-maintained county roads. A couple of miles in the middle are unpaved. You’ll go at your own pace, linger at historic spots as long as you like, perhaps have a picnic or take a short hike. You’ll collect an envelope at five stops, and the only time constraint is that you must arrive at the 1914 Ruch schoolhouse by 2:30 pm to open your envelopes and play the hand of Steamboat in 1903, one of seven one-room log schoolhouses cards you’ve collected. on the Steamboat Time Travel Trail. Photo: SOHS 2385. Winning hands receive some great prizes like top-quality Cowhorn Those structures are now gone, but their biodynamic wine, Applegate Country stories endure. You’ll learn about early Club pizza, Sweets ’n Eats delights, or an homesteaders who left their mark on the appliqued pillow depicting McKee Bridge map as well. Reservations are not required, but handcrafted by MBHS founder Evelyn we would appreciate a brief message to Byrne Williams. The course will take you past the former mckeebridge1917@gmail.com if you locations of seven one-room schoolhouses plan to participate, noting the number dating back to the 1870s. You’ll visit in your party so we have an idea of how Kanaka Gulch where Agnes Baker many hands of cards to deal. Don’t forget Pilgrim—Grandma Aggie, Taowhywee, to bring cash or a checkbook to pick up Morning Star—revived the sacred Salmon some great MBHS swag (the signal at Ceremony in 1994. You’ll envision the bridge is too marginal to process card Big Applegate (aka Watkins), the vibrant payments). You can round out a perfect community founded by Native American Applegate day by attending the Ruch matriarchs and their grizzled, white, Outdoor Community School dinner and gold-mining husbands in the valley auction at Valley View Winery. Call the now inundated by Applegate Dam. school at 541-842-3850 for details. You’ll drive through a battleground— Another chance to see that story illustrates how hearsay Britt’s photos of Applegaters Did you catch the exhibit about and creative recollections have left us with some questionable, albeit Applegate clientele of Peter Britt at the Jacksonville Library? If not, you can see entertaining, “history.” There will be gold, copper, and cinnabar an expanded version now through July at mining sites at every turn, often reflected Southern Oregon Historical Society, 106 in massive piles of tailings and place N. Central Avenue, Medford (the former names like Flumet Gulch and Sturgis J.C. Penney’s building). Laura Ahearn Fork. Fire lookouts, sawmills, post offices, mckeebridge1917@gmail.com and dance halls once dotted the route.
