WES Environmental Camp - Bar 717
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Dr. Robert Sullivan, TRRP Wildlife Biologist,
"What is this critter?"
Weaverville Elementary School (WES), through the efforts of faculty and parents, established an environmental education field camp in 1999 for its entire sixth grade class. The camp is held at the Bar 717 Youth Ranch near Hyampom in Trinity County. Approximately 60 students, two teachers, and a dozen parent chaperones attend the camp for a week each September.
A critical element of the program is to educate students about the issues surrounding salmonid habitat and riparian health in the overall context of watersheds and the Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP). The faculty turned to the TCRCD and its NRCS partner to teach about these resource issues, because of our technical expertise in the area. The program taps local resource professionals as “visiting teachers” to the Camp, including scientists from the TRRP, NRCS, the RCD, and Trinity County Natural Resources Division.
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Stream Flow Monitoring Station
The rudimentary program that was developed in 1999 for the inaugural year of the camp has been expanded and improved upon every year. In 2003-2004 the curriculum centered on students conducting actual field measurements within Hayfork Creek. Students use field tools to measure the health of the stream, including turbidity, temperature, stream flow, dissolved oxygen, channel profile and inventories of stream habitat, macro-invertebrates, riparian vegetation and wildlife. Back in the classroom, students also learn about the salmon life cycle, anatomy, and their role in the ecosystem. The Camp's success is tied to willingness of professionals in our community offering to serve as instructors. This year students also learned about forestry, traditional uses of native plants, wildlife, soils,orienteering and fossils.
Teachers guide the curriculum so as to better support California Content Standards.
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