by Taylor Pittman, Information and Education Specialist, US Fish & Wildlife Service
Some 12,000 pounds, or approximately 2 ˝ acres, of the invasive Brazilian elodea plant has been removed from the Chehalis River near the boat launch at Fort Borst Park in Centralia. Doug Freeland, of ACE (Aquatic Consulting & Evaluation) Diving, working under contract to Thurston County's Noxious Weed Control Department Coordinator, Rick Johnson, has worked during the first 10 days of the project to eradicate the plants, the roots of the plants and roots found under the first layer of river rock.
"The plants are dense and the roots are hard to see," Doug said. "It takes a lot of time to make sure we have removed them completely." Brazilian elodea reproduces from fragments or partial plants and must be carefully removed to ensure successful eradication. ACE's techniques and experience with the control of invasive weeds are uniquely efficient and effective. Removal to date has increased over last year's pilot project due to the hiring of Marty Peoples, who is assisting in removing the plants from the barge to shore.
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The next phase of the project will cover five to six acres of the river upstream, near the outflow of Plummer Lake, the source of the infestation. This phase will not include removing roots from under the river rocks. The two techniques will be compared at the beginning of next season to see if the results of the more thorough process will justify the additional effort required.
At the end of July, as part of this project, the largest survey of aquatic nuisance plants ever done on the upper Chehalis River was completed. The survey showed the presence of Brazilian elodea in "scattered" to "intense" patches from Plummer Lake to the Black River Confluence, a distance of approximately 15 miles.
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The Chehalis River Brazilian Elodea Removal project is administered by Thurston County with Lewis County as a contributing partner. Additional partners include the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Washington Department of Natural Resources, The Washington Department of Ecology and the Chehalis Tribe. Much of the project's funding comes from the Washington Department of Ecology and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
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By Sara Carter, Natural Resource Technician, Thurston Conservation District
The Conservation Districts of Lewis, Thurston and Grays Harbor have joined forces to reduce water pollution in the Chehalis River. A grant from the Department of Ecology's Centennial Clean Water Fund will enable these districts to offer many services to county residents in an effort to improve water quality. The districts will be working on several fronts to assist landowners with on-the-ground sustainability projects.
Efforts will be focused on reducing the amount of bacteria entering the water system and establishing vegetation along the banks to shade and cool the water. Project work will occur on land adjacent to the Upper Chehalis River and its tributaries.
Technical assistance and guidance is available for landowners with damaged or non-functioning riparian areas. Stewardship classes will also be offered to help landowners learn how to develop conservation plans and manage their property to improve water quality.
Limited financial assistance is available to help qualified landowners improve the function of their riparian areas. Approved projects may include fencing, alternate livestock watering facilities development and riparian restoration, including planting and maintenance. Additional programs may be available to landowners interested in protecting their riparian areas. Some options can provide financial payments and tax benefits to the qualified landowner.
This project is one of many local efforts to improve the quality of our river systems. If you would like more information, please contact your local conservation district.
Lewis Conservation District (360) 748-0083 x4
Thurston Conservation District (360) 754-3588
Grays Harbor Conservation District (360) 249-5980
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By Norma Schanz
This article was first published in the August 2005 Demogram and is reprinted with permission.
Fairly regularly, I hear a local talk show host indignantly exclaim, "Those tree huggers believe salmon are more important than people."
I wish a wise old logger would call the show to say "Well, if you want my opinion, salmon have done a heckuva lot more for us loggers than most people!"
This old logger might tell us a story.
"Contrary to popular opinion, I wasn't here when the Ice Age ended. However, I'm told that the glaciers had scraped off the trees and soil of the great northwest forests. Nothing left but rocks. Nothing much moving except the rivers and streams.
"Lucky for us, over hundreds of years, hundreds of thousands of salmon worked their way up the streams to spawn and die. This huge mass of dead salmon provided food for the hatchlings and for other life.
"Then an amazing digestive process began.
"Migrating birds and other critters ate the salmon and wandered off to digest it. Their droppings formed little pockets of rich nutrients across the barren land.
"The droppings also contained seeds. The seeds sprouted, did their best to grow, then died. Decaying plants joined the decaying droppings to slowly build the soil. After a long time, tree seedlings could grow to maturity. Eventually, the great northwestern forests were restored."
"But do we still need the salmon?" the talk show host might persist.
"Well, the forests still need the droppings," the wise old logger might reply, "so I reckon the droppers need the salmon."
The talk show host might chuckle to himself, then say, "If droppings are so important, do the forests need the droppings of the spotted owl?"
Maybe the logger would pause a few moments, gathering his thoughts.
"I figure nature is like a big jigsaw puzzle," he says, choosing his words carefully. "Throw one piece away, and the picture has a hole in it. If the hole is way over in a corner, maybe the puzzle is still worth working.
"But throw away enough connecting pieces, the picture is ruined and the whole puzzle falls apart.
"I don't know which pieces of nature are holding the forest puzzle together. Me, I don't want to throw away the salmon or the owl pieces.
"But I can think of some people pieces that might be expendable."
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Researchers studying rivers in Alaska have found that salmon and forests help each other out. Riparian forests keep streams the way salmon need them–cool and clear–by providing shade and stabilizing riverbanks with their roots. Salmon, in turn, give critical nutrients back to the surrounding vegetation when they die.
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Tracing a heavy form of nitrogen most abundant in marine environments, scientists from the University of Washington, Seattle, were able to measure the amount of nitrogen in freshwater streams that originated in the ocean. They found that this heavier form made up nearly a quarter of the nitrogen in trees and shrubs along salmon streams, and that these plants grew more than three times faster than vegetation along the banks of salmon-free waters. For example, Sitka spruce, which may take up to 300 years to reach 50 centimeters in diameter, take an average of only 86 years to thicken up along salmon streams.
The study emphasizes the connected nature of nature and suggests that forest and fish management should be unified.
Source: http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/archive/headline_science/salmon_trees.html.
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By Sara Carter, Natural Resource Technician, Thurston Conservation District
If you have horses and dread the blitz of winter rains coming your way, take heed! Implementing the following suggestions can help make this winter easier on you, your horses and your pastures.
Protect your pastures. Dedicate an area as a winter holding facility, and use it to keep horses off wet pastures. Allow about 300-400 square feet of holding area per horse. Animals can be kept and fed in this area during times when the soil is saturated or pastures have not yet regrown to grazing height. Allowing animals on saturated soils will result in compaction of the ground and reduce the ability of forage grasses to grow well next season.
Minimize mud. Installing and/or maintaining gutters and downspouts will help move water away from critical areas. Trenches or French drains may be helpful to move water away from the barn and holding facilities, thereby reducing mud and ponding. This is also an excellent way to keep clean water clean. A 20 x 40 foot barn roof produces approximately 24,800 gallons of water annually.
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Collect, cover and compost manure. The manure produced by your animals represents a valuable source of nutrients. Collect manure from stalls and holding facilities, compost and apply to pastures. Composted manure can be applied to pastures throughout the growing season to provide some of the nitrogen necessary for grass growth.
Don't over graze. Grass needs to be at least three inches tall in order to grow. If pastures are grazed below three inches, grasses will be less productive and may even die. Animals should be removed from overgrazed pastures and given supplemental feed while the grass recovers and reaches a height of at least six inches. Remember to remove animals again when grass reaches three inches.
An excellent informational booklet addressing mud, manure and pasture management is available online at http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/edmat/EC1558.pdf. You can also order "Managing Small-Acreage Horse Farm," publication number EC 1558, from the University of Oregon.
For more information, contact your local Conservation District.
Lewis Conservation District (360) 748-0083 x4
Thurston Conservation District (360) 754-3588
Grays Harbor Conservation District (360) 249-5980
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By Kathy Jacobson, Chehalis Basin Education Consortium Coordinator
Here's part II of the article that I promised Drops of Water readers in September. KJ.
Richard Louv's book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder," has encouraged me to respect more fully and appreciate the importance of nature for all of us. Nature is such a great stress reducer, helps promote greater physical and emotional health, fosters a deeper sense of spirit and creativity, promotes a sense of play, and makes for a safer life. I agree with one of the book's reviewers, who said, "Every parent should read this book, but equally important, every teacher should take it to heart and take every student into nature." Please take the time to check out a copy of the book at your local library or purchase a copy at your neighborhood bookstore.
Here's a list of a few ways, gleaned from Richard Louv's book, that you can "bring nature home, to reunite children -- and the rest of us -- with nature."
1. Turn off the television and the computer and take a walk outside with your child.
In the United States, children age six to eleven spend about thirty hours a week looking at a TV or computer monitor. "There's something about television - maybe that it provides so much in the way of audio and visual stimulation, that children don't have to generate very much on their own," says Althea Shuston, co-director of the Center for Research on the Influence of Television, University of Kansas.
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Walk around your backyard, around the neighborhood, or to a nearby park with your child. "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder," wrote Rachel Carson, "he or she needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. It is not half as important to know as to feel when introducing a young child to the natural world."
Paying early attention to nature's details can play a major role in a child's speech development, writing, and artwork.
2. Encourage your child to go outside and explore nature.
Research suggests that children, when left to their own devices, are drawn to the rough edges of parks, the ravines and rocky inclines, the natural vegetation. A growing body of evidence also recommends that contact with nature is as important to children as good nutrition and adequate sleep.
According to Louise Chaola, Environmental Psychologist, "Nature, the sublime, the harsh and the beautiful - offers something that the street or gated community or computer game cannot. Nature presents the young with something so much greater than they are; it offers an environment where they can easily contemplate infinity and eternity. Immersion in the natural environment cuts to the chase and exposes the young directly and immediately to the very elements from which humans evolved: earth, air, water and other living kin, large and small. Without that experience, we forget our place; we forget that larger fabric on which our lives depend."
3. Go hiking with your child.
To increase your child's safety, encourage more times outdoors in nature. Natural play strengthens children's self confidence and arouses their senses, their awareness of the world and all that moves in it, seen and unseen.
4. Pitch a tent in your backyard with your child. Listen to the night sounds, feel the night air and look at the night sky.
The natural environment is the principal source of sensory stimulation. Children live through their senses, and need the freedom to explore and play with the outdoor environment.
5. Read about nature with a child.
Reading is an indirect experience, but, unlike television, reading does not swallow the senses or dictate thought. Reading "stimulates the ecology of the imagination."
6. Encourage schools and universities to teach the fundamentals of biology and "real natural history."
In a 2003 review by the "Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development," Finland outscored thirty-one other countries including the U.S. Finland placed first in literacy and placed in the top five in math and science. (Finland spends less per student on education than the U.S., and also requires educators to meet national curriculum requirements, but gives teachers leeway in how they teach.) They believe in the power of play, and after every 45 minutes of lessons, students are let loose outside for 15 minutes so they can burn off steam. According to the New York Times, Finland also encourages environment-based education, and has moved a substantial amount of classroom experience into natural settings or the surrounding community. "The core of learning is not in the information ... being predigested from the outside, but in the interaction between a child and the environment," states Finland's Minister of Social Affairs and Health.
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A ten year U.S. study conducted by the State Education and Environmental Roundtable, of 150 schools from 16 states that integrated environmental education into their curriculum, found that "environmental education produces student gains in social studies, science, language arts and math; improves standardized test scores and grade point averages; develops skills in problem-solving, critical thinking and decision-making."
According to Paul Dayton, professor of Oceanography, Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, "The last century has seen enormous environmental degradation. These environmental crises coincide with the virtual banishment of the natural sciences in academe, which eliminates the opportunity for both scientists and the general public to learn the fundamentals that help us predict population levels and the responses by complex systems to environmental variation. It is vital that politicians encourage universities to teach the fundamentals of biology and real natural history."
7. Get your hands and feet wet and join a local non-profit conservation organization with your child.
Through your family's involvement, environmental and conservation groups will be able to pass on the heritage of their movement and the ongoing care of the earth to the future generations.
8. Encourage the use of the school grounds as a nature classroom.
Learn how to integrate the school grounds and nearby parks, woods and fields into core curriculum. Nature offers a well from which we can draw a creative sense of pattern and connection, and nature experiences help children understand natural systems.
In Great Britain, more than one-third of Britain's school grounds have been improved with the help of a successful national program called "Learning through Landscapes."
9. Encourage "greening" around home, school and work
A Cornell University study found that life's stressful events appear not to cause as much psychological distress in children that live in high-nature conditions compared with children who live in low-nature conditions.
In Sweden, Australia, Canada and in the U.S., studies of children with both green areas and manufactured play areas found that children engaged in more creative forms of play in the green areas. Children used more fantasy play, and their social standing was based less on physical abilities and more on language skills, creativity and inventiveness. According to Robin Moore, Director of the National Learning Initiative, "Natural settings are essential for healthy child development because they stimulate the senses, stimulate children's limitless imagination and serve as the medium of inventiveness and creativity observable in almost any group of children playing in a natural setting."
A 1993 survey of twelve hundred corporate and state office workers found that those with a view of trees, bushes and large lawns experienced significantly less frustration and more work enthusiasm than those employees without such views.
10. Nature journal with your family
Outdoor joumaling is something a family can do together, and it offers a reason and focus for being in nature. Encourage your child to describe in words and pictures what you find.
Humans need direct, natural experiences. We require fully activated senses in order to feel fully alive. Nature promotes greater physical and emotional health, fosters a deeper sense of spirit, creativity, and promotes a sense of play. Go outdoors and "discover nature in your own backyard."
"To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or seaside stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall." Thomas Huxley.
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Several organizations involved with natural resources and land use issues are planning a celebration for October 15, 2005. The Second Annual "Celebrate our Environment" Fair will be held on Saturday October 15 from 3 pm until into the evening at the Matrix Coffee House in Chehalis.
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The Chehalis River Council, the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust, Lewis County Watch, and other organizations sponsored the first annual celebration in May of 2004.
This year's event will feature informational and educational exhibits from the participating organizations. The Matrix management is putting together a line-up of live music with an environmental flavor. Some danceable and youth-oriented bands will play later in the evening.
The event is informal and visitors are encouraged to drop in throughout the day and evening. Food is available from the Matrix's menu. This is a family friendly, no cover occasion but donations are accepted. The public is invited.
Activities for children will include crafts, games and a puppet show. Watch for flyers with more information about participants and entertainment.
For more information, call the Chehalis River Council at (360) 807-0764 or visit the Matrix's website: www.matrixcoffeehouse.com.
From www.riversmart.org Back to top or back to home page or back to Whats New About WATERSHEDSWhat is a watershed?A watershed is the geographic area consisting of all land that water flows across, under and through on its way to a particular body of water. It is also known as a river basin. What's America's largest watershed?The Mississippi River Basin is the nation's largest and second largest in the world second only to the Amazon River. It drains water from all or parts of 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces-approximately 41% of the continental United States! How can I find my local watershed?The EPA's "Surf Your Watershed" is a new device that allows you to enter your zip code and find out what watershed you live in as well as certain programs that are currently on-going in your watershed as well as water quality and pollution information for that area. To locate your local watershed, go to www.epa.gov/surf/. For many of you, your watershed is the Chehalis Basin. |