Students in Rod Shroufe’s (NAUI 55930) AP Environmental Science class are participating in a Green Diver Event by kicking off a watershed enhancement plan in their community. The students from Clackamas High School are studying the relationship between watershed health and its connection to ocean health. The focus for the unit will be the native salmon and lamprey and their direct connection to both marine and forest health as well as the sustenance of the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest.
As part of the class’ philosophy, that learning is enhanced through the Stewardship Model, the class adopted an area at the headwaters of a stream that directly drains to salmonid and lamprey bearing streams. The project has 4 phases, Phase 1 is the removal of roughly a half-acre of the invasive Himalayan blackberry. This plant along with many other invasives limit habitat diversity by taking over an area as well as increase erosion in the area by having a uniform root depth. Phase 2 will be planting a diverse more than 400 native plants on the site. Finally mulching the trees in the spring to keep the soil moist and reduce weed competition (phase 3). This will be followed by general site maintenance that involves replacing trees that don’t survive their first year and keeping the blackberries from reclaiming the areas while the native plants are allowed to grow and reclaim the site (Phase 4). Native plants provide the habitat requirements for native wildlife including salmon and lampreys.