Author: Stephanie Bishop

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!

Salmon swimming upstream at McLane Creek Nature Trail

Students are strapping on their boots and raincoats to explore trails alongside salmon spawning creeks! We’ve also been restoring riparian habitat near spawning grounds.

Things are coming full circle at South Sound GREEN. Classes are expanding on their experience with water quality by getting to see the salmon that rely on water ways we’ve been testing at. McLane Creek has seen a lot of our students this month, and even more Chum salmon. Kids are getting the chance to connect the pieces of testing, conservation, and the salmon life cycle. 

Some students are also getting the opportunity make a positive impact within their local environment. We spent time this month with students to planting native species and removing invasive species along a tributary to McLane Creek. We even saw salmon making their way upstream! Students really enjoyed expressing their nurturing side, as they plant native trees and shrubs, and spending time outdoors as they clipped, dug up, and removed Himalayan blackberries. 

November’s Teens in Thurston event was put together in partnership with Thurston County Food Bank. Teen volunteers helped with some tougher projects at the Lydia Hawk Elementary School garden that aren’t suitable for elementary students. The garden is in good shape after our volunteers cleared out some less desired grass and tree roots. 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.

Student reading nitrate test results at Pioneer Park, courtesy of Amy Schutte

October means we’ve got salmon on our minds. Students from all over Thurston County have taken to their local waterways to conduct water quality tests and consider how our environment is impacting salmon. 

South Sound G.R.E.E.N. is still out in the field with Watershed Explorers field trips, too. At these trips and at Water Quality Monitoring trips we’re asking students to look into their communities and home to consider what their watershed means to them, as well as how we impact our watersheds. 

We visited schools to help students practice tests in the classroom before field trips. We’ve also been supporting teachers by the creeks, streams, lakes and rivers of our watersheds. Students are eager to test water that salmon and other wildlife are really coming into contact with and that many things, including people, rely on. They have been ready! Kids come to the site prepared by their experiences in the classroom and take on their tasks with confidence and enthusiasm. 

SSG had a blast hosting a kids activity at the Thurston Conservation District’s annual Harvest Festival. Kids got to use native plant coloring sheets and glue eco-confetti on them (hole-punched leaves!). 

October’s Teens in Thurston event was put together by the Thurston Conservation District in partnership with City of Olympia Parks. Teen volunteers helped run an orca-themed activity booth at Squaxin Park. They also planted native plants and toured the beach. 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.

South Sound G.R.E.E.N. is welcoming fall by getting outdoors with students and teachers again. We have been gearing up to get back out into the field with the community, and now the time has come! 

This September, we’ve been taking elementary students on our Watershed Explorers field trips. Students are visiting sites near their school to learn more about their watershed. At the site, they conduct several water quality tests, including the lively benthic macroinvertebrates activity- or “stream bugs”. They are learning what the various results mean for their watershed and how the things that happen in their watershed impact water quality. 

Our water quality monitoring season is just around the corner, which means it’s prep time for us and teachers all around our watersheds. This month we held a training for new and returning teachers in the Water Quality Monitoring program, to ensure that everyone feels confident and excited for upcoming water quality testing days. We were lucky enough to host this training at the newly constructed Kalama Creek Hatchery. This site gave us insight into the world of salmon hatcheries and how connected water quality is to salmon. Teachers got to practice tests right on the edge of Kalama Creek and get a comprehensive understanding of our Water Quality Monitoring program. 

September’s Teens in Thurston event was put together in partnership with Capitol Land Trust. We got together again at the Inspire Kids Preserve to support the restoration work happening there and see the beautiful area. We had a great time removing Ivy and “Stinky Bob”. 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.