The River Mile Network
An Education Program of the National Park Service
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December, 2018 Newsletter
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Greetings
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The River Mile welcomes its new editors coming from Columbia High School in Hunters, Washington. The National Park Service is teaming up with Columbia’s sophomore class and forming a TRM team. In addition to the newsletter, together we are continuing our work on the crayfish study by developing training materials for new participants. TRM is a great opportunity for students and people of the community to explore what is going on around us. TRM helps us know the reality of invasive species and gives us a chance to make a change even if that is removing the invasive one at a time.
As many of you know we have been trying to bring on the crayfish study for over 5 years! Well, it is finally happening! The study begins May 1, 2019. During the month of April we will have several training opportunities so you and your students can join this citizen science project. You can choose from in-person or virtual training.
Sincerely,
Janice Elvidge, Program Director
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Columbia School Projects
Filming!
The TRM team had their first field day this school season and went to the river to collect traps. Training the new members has been rough but they are catching on quickly. The team caught three male invasive Northerns. It may have been cold but the experience overall was very educational. The team learned a lot from Jim Ekins who taught them about filming and water quality. Janice Elvidge also was there to help the students with learning how to measure and sex the crayfish. Everyone learned quite a bit and knew to wear more layers next time.
On the 20th of November the group took their second trip. Although they were reduced in numbers and forgot some of the supplies they did their best and were able prepare for their next trip on December 4.
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Why a Crayfish Study?
Crayfishes can be found in almost every type of aquatic and semiaquatic habitat. They are found in nearly every body of water from mid-western states such as Minnesota and Illinois, to southern states such as Louisiana and Alabama, to the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River Watershed. Crayfishes are members of the Phylum Arthropoda, the largest group of named organisms with over 1 million members. 620 species of crayfish are recognized worldwide.
According to Dr. Eric Larson, supervising professor for The River Mile's Crayfish Study, “The western United States (US) is more species poor for freshwater crayfishes than the southeastern US, but its endemic [native] genus, Pacifastacus, is representative of the conservation and management challenge for crayfishes globally. Of the Pacifastacus crayfishes, one is a globally cosmopolitan invasive species (the signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus; Dana, 1852), one species is believed extinct (the sooty crayfish Pacifastacus nigrescens; Stimpson, 1857), another is listed as Endangered under the US Endangered Species Act (the Shasta crayfish Pacifastacus fortis; Faxon, 1914), and two other species, the Snake River pilose crayfish Pacifastacus connectens (Faxon, 1914) and the pilose crayfish Pacifastacus gambelii (Girard, 1852), are effectively unstudied (Larson & Williams, 2015). Currently, P. connectens is listed in the IUCN Red List database as Data Deficient and P. gambelii is listed as Least Concern (Richman et al., 2015), but no distributional or conservation status studies have been conducted for either species (Larson & Olden, 2011; Larson & Williams, 2015). Given that two species of their genus have gone extinct or been listed as Endangered, we sought to evaluate the distribution, habitat associations, and conservation status of the pilose crayfishes P. connectens and P. gambelii.”
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Flathead Lake Bio Station
Jim Elser is a limnologist, and the director of the Flathead Lake Biological station (FLBS). This station is located at Yellow Bay, Montana. The station has been around since 1899. Three things the FLBS fuels are, advanced research, sustained monitoring of the lake and the watershed, and education at all levels.
The biggest reason for conducting research a FLBS is the lake itself. Flathead lake is the largest fresh water lake located in the western united states. The flathead biological station monitors the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the lake, but mostly on nutrient dynamics and water quality. One study the FLBS team is focusing on is the climate change on the high elevation lakes. The study mostly takes place in glacier National Park, in the last 50 to 60 years, there have been what Dr. Elser has called “Newborn lakes”. These are small lakes that appear as the glaciers retreat.
The flathead lake Biological station is a scientific station that experts truly rely on, for more information visit
this website article
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Flathead Lake Bio Station. (Credit: Dr. Jim Elser, via communication)
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Predator Threatens Central Salmon and Steelhead Habitat on Columbia River
The Northern Pike have been eating endangered salmon and steelheads. The predator fish are getting dangerously close to the Columbia river, threating millions of dollars of in salmon recovery.
The northern pike have only been spotted 80 miles from grand coulee dam, with the salmon and steelhead below. But the confederated tribes of Colville have captured a northern pike in lower lake Roosevelt, around Grand Coulee Dam. This mean that invasive predator fish are now less than 10 miles from critical salmon and steelhead in Columbia river. The Spokane tribe caught their biggest pike yet, measuring at 47 inches, and weighing 27.5 pounds
The northern pike have to still make it through the dam and Rufus woods lake before entering the salmons and steelheads spawning zone. To learn more on this subject go to this
website.
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Crawdata Citizen Science
- Saturday April 6, 2019, Portland, Oregon
- Monday April 15, 2019, Spokane, Washington
- Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, date to be determined
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As many of you know we have been trying to bring on the crayfish study for over 5 years! Well, it is finally happening! The study begins May 1, 2019. During the month of April we will have several training opportunities so you and your students can join this citizen science project. You can choose from in-person or virtual training.
More details to come!
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Sagebrush Ecosystem Teacher Training
April 18, 2019
The Reach Musuem
Richland, Washington
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Join Rick Reynolds, veteran educator and author of Inquiry, Exploration, and Service Learning in the Sagebrush Ecosystem and Janice Elvidge from the National Park Service and The River Mile Network as we explore a variety of resources from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Audubon, BLM, and other partners. Earn PDUs while exploring hands-on NGSS/STEAM activities in beautiful Spokane, WA. Help us inspire students to think critically about sagebrush ecosystems and ways to protect them and their fascinating species!
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Spokane River Forum
April 16-17, 2019
Spokane, Washington
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Bird Fest
February 20 and 21, 2019
Grand Coulee, Washington
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Save the dates!
Registration information available January 7, 2019.
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Have an upcoming event
you'd like us to promote?
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Our network partners are always on the move. If you would like to see your next event in our quarterly newsletter, please email us at
LARO_river_mile@nps.gov.
Want to see it on The River Mile's website? Use the link below.
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Have you explored the WikiWatershed toolkit?
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The toolkit is an initiative of Stroud Water Research Center designed to help citizens, conservation practitioners, municipal decision-makers, researchers, educators, and students advance knowledge and stewardship of fresh water. The WikiWatershed toolkit includes:
- Model My Watershed®, a web app that lets you analyze geospatial data, model storms, and compare conservation or development scenarios in a watershed.
- A Runoff Simulation that shows how land use and soil together determine whether rainfall infiltrates into the soil, runs off into streams, or is evaporated and transpired by plants.
- Monitor My Watershed®, a web app that lets you share and explore environmental monitoring sensor data and (coming soon!) macroinvertebrate data from the Leaf Pack Network®.
- EnviroDIY™, a community of do-it-yourself enthusiasts sharing open-source ideas for environmental science and monitoring.
- Leaf Pack Network, an international network of teachers, students, and citizen monitors investigating their local stream ecosystems.
- The Water Quality mobile app for recording water-monitoring data and enhancing learning activities for students and citizen scientists. Available for Apple and Android devices.
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Ellison Education Grants
The Ellison Education Grants were created to empower and support Washington State’s most effective, innovative and inspirational K- 12 public school teachers. Our goal is to support lifelong achievement and success of Washington State students. We do this by providing support to educators who select and design academic enrichment curriculum for students and or professional learning experiences relevant to their current practice. The Ellison Foundation supports the classroom teacher's expertise in understanding their own professional learning needs and the needs of their students. The Ellison Foundation has awarded 27 grants and $117,000 in the last two years.
The Ellison Foundation wishes to award at least 10 grants in the Spring of 2019 for the 2019 – 2020 school year. Grant amounts range between $2,500 and $10,000.
Applications are accepted December 1
st
, 2018 through March 9
th
, 2019.
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The
Washington State Opportunity Scholarship (
WSOS) application opens on January 3rd, 2019. The WSOS provides up to $22,500 per year for up to five years in scholarship to students pursing a degree in the STE(A)M fields. In addition, students who earn this scholarship get small group peer advising by experienced Scholars to adjust to campus life, access resources and build a community.
One-on-one advising from an industry professional who is committed to helping scholars prepare for the workforce and launch their career is also available to those who receive the WSOS. Lastly, Scholars receive connections to professionals, networks and companies offering internships, health care observerships and jobs. The scholarship application period is from January 3 to February 8, 2019.
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The TRM blog is in the works, it has links to the social media groups and also some articles from students. The plan is to update it monthly and have information about upcoming events.
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The River Mile Website News
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Join the Community
Visit
therivermile.org
, click on "joinTRM" and complete the network registration form.
Community Groups
Once you log in you can request membership in community groups. Don't see a group you think would be valuable? Send the suggestion to the webmaster.
A Work in Progress
In the coming weeks and months, we will continue updating the website to include new maps, apps, and content related to all of the wonderful projects schools are conducting with their outdoor classrooms.
New Features
- Crayfish blog, written by the remarkable students at Columbia School in Hunters, WA
- Newly designed online library
- Ability to view and submit events to the event calendar
Seeking Feedback!
There are feedback buttons on the web pages for you to submit suggestions for content and organization ideas; and a form to submit documents, websites, PowerPoints, videos and other resources to the online library.
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