Stream Team Outdoor Classroom Experience

Today I took 10 Hopwood Junior High School students down to the Lao Lao Watershed for an outdoor classroom experience. Accompaning us were Bree, Doug, and Sharleen, 3 teachers from Hopwood, Jeremy Shaw from DEQ and Joleen, one of DEQ's new interns.

We took them to the revegetation area and taught them about watershed science, erosion, and the effects of burning on the soil. Then we hiked over to a burned area that is adjacent to an unburned area and we discussed the difference in the soils.

After our hour long hike we drove down to the dive site and looked at one of the stream crossings for the road and then at the spot where the stream drains into the ocean.

After that, we cleaned up stream #4.

We learned that what we do on the land, affects what goes on in the water. We witnessed the effects that burnings have on erosion and sediment loads in Lao Lao Bay and then we witnessed first hand what effects littering and illegal dumping have on the beauty of the island.

Then we did something about it.

I'll post a few more pictures when I get back from Guam (I'm going there for the weekend), but would you look at all of that garbage:

All this garbage was pulled out of ONE stream. It is pretty sad that we have to rely on a bunch of 8th graders to pick it up for us. We're lucky that they're willing (and excited) to go out and do this kind of stuff. All of these kids are on there summer vacation, but instead of spending the day playing PS2, they chose to learn how to help improve our island and our environment.

Thank you, Hopwood Junior High School! We collected over 440 lbs of trash!