Author: Stephanie Bishop

Delegates observe the external anatomy of a shark in the “Sharks in Puget Sound: A Look Inside Dogfish!” workshop at Student GREEN Congress. 

Every March marks the start of spring and the culmination of student water quality testing all around our watersheds- at Student GREEN Congress! This event was put together in partnership with South Sound GREEN, Nisqually River Education Project, and Chehalis Basin Education Consortium. 450 students gathered at the Evergreen State College to present their data and discuss results and action projects with peers. In these State of the River Sessions, student delegates got to meet with other students from their watershed to build a picture of water quality across the watershed area. 

Every group of student delegates brought ideas for action projects to improve water quality at their testing site. After discussing all of the ideas with other delegates, each session chose one idea together. The most popular action project idea was to reduce littering, followed by planting native plants and education. The day was filled to the brim with collaboration, stewardship, and enthusiasm for our shared environment. 

Student GREEN Congress offered 26 enriching workshops this year through many of our amazing community partners. Students dissected salmon, built birdhouses, made plankton batiks, performed banana salmon surgery, forest journaling, oyster shucking, and so much more! Our student delegates had a full day that ignited further excitement for taking care of salmon habitat and protecting healthy streams.  

We’d like to extend a big thank you to all of our community partners and volunteers. Everyone put their best foot forward and helped bring forth a day of stewardship, care, and excitement. 

Students test for pH in the field

We are planning for spring here at South Sound GREEN, with many exciting events on the horizon. This past month has been full of water quality testing and preparation for the upcoming Student GREEN Congress.

As the frost melts and the days get a little longer classes have ventured out to conduct their winter water quality testing. Students in the field and in the classroom are discussing the difference between the seasons and how those factors can affect the salmon in their different life stages. As classes get their testing results they are comparing these to the optimal values for salmon in the stream. 

Student GREEN Congress gives delegates from each class the chance to compare water quality data between seasons and from all over their watershed! This year congress will take place on March 20th at The Evergreen State College. This event is put together in partnership with the Nisqually River Education Project and Chehalis Basin Education Consortium. To learn more please visit the Student GREEN Congress page. 

February’s Teens in Thurston event was held by the Center for Natural Lands Management at the Glacial Heritage Preserve. Participants helped restore prairie land by burning christmas trees. This bonfire helps restore prairie by creating ash and spreading nutrients. It also makes for a good smores opportunity. If you or someone you know is a high school age student with an interest in environmental volunteer work please contact Sam Nadell at snadell@thurstoncd.com.

Thurgood Marshall Middle School students work to identify live bugs

It’s alive! Classrooms have moved from chemical tests to live animals! South Sound GREEN has been bringing benthic macroinvertebrates- or stream bugs- to local classrooms to illustrate how these creatures can help us test water quality. Not all of these creatures are actually bugs but all of them are small water dwelling critters. Some of them are quite sensitive to pollution, so their presence can indicate a low level of pollution in whatever body of water they are found. 

Students are having a blast with these creepy crawlies at their schools. We first taught them about benthic macroinvertebrates in the environment, their importance to salmon, how to read a dichotomous key, and how to use a pollution tolerance index. From there they are interacting with real bugs from their local waterways! Although they have many legs and tails, students are finding love in their hearts for stream bugs.

January’s Teens in Thurston event took place on M.L.K. Jr. Day of Service at the Lacey Regional Athletic Complex. Our volunteers picked up trash on the public access trails. Our clean-up pile was huge by the end of the day! If you or someone you know is a high school age student with an interest in environmental volunteer work please contact Sam Nadell at snadell@thurstoncd.com.

Tumwater High School students ready to dissect their salmon, lead by Stephanie

Watershed Explorers trips with North Thurston Public School 5th graders have wrapped up with plenty of “ooh”s and “ahh”s along the way. Students made connections between their actions and the health of their watershed. They also considered the actions of their entire community and made suggestions for how individuals and community groups can protect their watershed, such as picking up after pets and planting trees. Thanks to our friends at City of Olympia Parks Department for hosting a trip with Lincoln Elementary students this month to help clear non-native ivy to make some of these suggestions a reality!

Although salmon spawning season is over, we’ve still been talking about salmon in classrooms. Several high school classes had the opportunity to dissect coho and chinook salmon! These were all jack salmon, or fish that returned to spawn too young. Students were brave and took care to observe all the systems inside a salmon that help it through its extraordinary life cycle. 

South Sound GREEN is happy for all the memorable moments and learning opportunities provided this past year. In 2024 we broke our own personal best, hosting over 8,000 student interactions! These are spread across many programs from classroom to field. We rely on our partners, volunteers, and schools to make these programs possible.  We’d like to say thank you to all of our community partners, volunteers, teachers, parent chaperones, and students who came out to our programs this year! We look forward to seeing familiar and new faces in 2025!