Category: Updates

We hope that you all enjoyed the holiday season and that you are feeling renewed and excited for  this new year! At South Sound GREEN we have had quite the start to 2024 with an office move and some very fun classroom lessons! We met students in their classroom at the beginning of the month for a watershed model lesson with the Enviroscape and a stream bug lab. The Enviroscape is a 3D model that shows how common pollutants can enter lakes, rivers, and the Puget Sound via runoff. We also spent time talking with students about how they can reduce the amount of pollution in the water and what they can do to be good stewards of their environment. This class had some great ideas! South Sound GREEN has also been busy getting ready for winter water quality testing, Student GREEN Congress, the South Puget Sound Envirothon Competition, and the many spring field experiences we are offering this year!

Student GREEN Congress will be held on Thursday, March 21st at The Evergreen State College in collaboration with the Nisqually River Education Project and Chehalis Basin Education Consortium and we could not be more excited! If you would like more information about this event check out the Student GREEN Congress webpage.

This month, high school students with the Teens in Thurston (TnT) volunteer group worked on a wetland and beaver habitat restoration project with the City of Tumwater and Stream Team on MLK day. Next month’s event will surely be fun, as it will be with the Center for Natural Lands Management restoring native prairie lands by creating a bonfire at a former Christmas tree farm!  If you, or someone you know, is a high school student interested in community service hours in the outdoors, we would love to see you – please contact Sam Nadell at snadell@thurstoncd.com to learn more!

Another upcoming opportunity for high school students is the South Puget Sound Envirothon Competition which will take place on April 16th at Squaxin Park in Olympia. To learn more about the competition please visit the Envirothon Competition webpage. Use this link to register a team! If you have any additional questions please reach out to Sam Nadell at snadell@thurstoncd.com. 

December is a month for getting cozy by the fire and sipping hot chocolate, and at South Sound GREEN it is also the perfect time for tree planting field trips! This month we met students on the west bluffs of the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge and planted native conifers and deciduous trees with them. It was great fun and students worked hard to plant their trees correctly, giving them the best possible chance at survival. The bluffs are owned by the refuge and are currently undergoing a long-term restoration project. We were delighted to work with BFJNNWR, teachers, and students and assist in the reforestation of the area. Many of the students who came out to the bluffs also joined SSG for water quality testing and chum salmon field trips which offers the great opportunity to talk about how each of these experiences connects to one another. We were able to discuss how planting trees on the Nisqually bluffs improves the riparian zone, water quality, and salmon habitat in the estuary below the bluffs. These planting trips were the last outdoor field trips for SSG in 2023 and we think it was a pretty wonderful ending. 

Before we head into the new year, South Sound GREEN would like to say a huge THANK YOU to our community partners, volunteers, teachers, and, of course, students who helped with and participated in our programs this year! We had more than 6,200 student interactions in 2023 and we would not be able to do what we do without all of you. 

South Sound GREEN has a lot to look forward to in 2024 and we can’t wait to see you all in the new year! We are getting excited for, among many other opportunities, the 31st Student GREEN Congress and the South Puget Sound Regional Envirothon competition. We have plenty of field experiences planned for the coming year and of course there will be some great Teens in Thurston events to come. Happy New Year! 

Fall water quality testing is coming to an end with the last of these trips at the beginning of December, but they are not over just yet! Student scientists continued working diligently to test the water within the South Sound GREEN watersheds through field trips and classroom visits. Also this month, we met students at McLane Nature Trail for chum salmon field trips! Chum salmon started returning to the South Sound in the past few weeks and students have had the chance to see them spawning in McLane Creek! Students love to see the fish splashing, digging, and fighting with one another, but these trips also offer a chance to enjoy the forest and see the wetlands. The nature trail is an excellent space to learn about riparian forests, wetland ecosystems, beavers, and human impacts adding to the experience for the students. In such an environment, students can make connections between the water quality testing they recently did and the salmon they see in the creek. It also offers the chance for students to consider the ways that the forest, the wetlands, and the salmon all interact and depend on one another.

The Teens in Thurston (TnT) event for the month was at Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail with the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group during their Salmon Celebration! High school volunteers helped coordinate the kids activities at this event and after their hard work got a tour of the salmon spawning in the creek! Overall a great day! If you, or someone you know, is a high school student interested in community service hours in the outdoors, we would love to see you – please contact Sam Nadell at snadell@thurstoncd.com to learn more!

It is officially Water Quality Monitoring season which means it has been an exciting and busy month here at South Sound GREEN! Our weeks have been filled with teacher coordination and chemical preparation as well as field trips! We have been working out in the field with students from North Thurston elementary schools on their Watershed Explorers Field Days and have been meeting students in their classrooms to help prepare them for teacher-led water quality field days. From Boston Harbor to Rainier, hundreds of Thurston County students across the South Sound GREEN watershed region have been out testing rivers, lakes, and streams this month to see just how healthy our south sound water systems are. Students test the pH, turbidity, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, and temperature present at their site with the intention of determining how healthy the water is for salmon. Discussions of how to improve water quality take place at the site and in the classroom which encourage student-led action projects to help raise awareness of certain water quality concerns. 

This month Teens in Thurston (TnT) volunteers participated in Orca Recovery Day with Thurston Conservation District and the City of Olympia at Squaxin Park. High school students worked with community members to pull invasive ivy and plant native trees and shrubs along Mission Creek within the park. If you, or someone you know, is a high school student interested in outdoor volunteer work, please contact Sam Nadell at snadell@thurstoncd.com for more information!

We have spent the month putting the final touches on our preparations for the water quality testing programs that are swiftly approaching! We are so excited to get back into the field with teachers and students and have been basking in anticipation for the activities to come. This month we met with teachers for Water Quality Monitoring Training, a professional development event meant to refresh the minds of returning teachers and provide a learning space for new teachers. It is important to us that our water quality testing field trips are educational and thrilling for students and in order to ensure great trips we need to make sure participating teachers feel prepared and confident. So, thank you to everyone who joined us! 

This month, we also welcomed Ariel Curtis, our new Watershed Educator AmeriCorps member to the SSG team! She has been working to get oriented with the program and can not wait to get out into nature with students and teachers!

At the end of this month, the first Teens in Thurston (TnT) event took place at Wolf Haven International! TnT is a high school volunteer group that meets monthly to work on outdoor projects around Thurston County. If you, or someone you know, is an interested high school student please contact Sam Nadell at snadell@thurstoncd.com.