Watching Our Water Ways

Posts Tagged ‘Education’

Students ride the wind during salmon kayak tour

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

When 60 students from Central Kitsap High School took off in double kayaks to look for jumping salmon, they had no idea how the changing weather would make the trip more exciting.

Bill Wilson, who teaches environmental science, organized Tuesday’s trip on Dyes Inlet near Silverdale. Lead guide Spring Courtright of Olympic Outdoor Center shares the story in her words.

Reminder: Free stream tours from land are scheduled for Saturday. See the story I wrote for Tuesday’s Kitsap Sun.

Wind pushes the kayaks along, as 60 Central Kitsap High School students return to Silverdale Tuesday after watching jumping salmon. / Photos by Spring Courtright

By Spring Courtright
Program Director, Olympic Outdoor Center

At 9 a.m. on election day, anyone peering through the fog at Silverdale Waterfront Park would have seen 35 bright kayaks lined up on the beach and 60 high school students preparing to paddle.

Central Kitsap High School environmental science students study salmon in class, then are given the option to paddle with jumping salmon on an annual Salmon Kayak Tour with the Olympic Outdoor Center (OOC). For the last two years, 60 students have jumped on the opportunity.

This trip started about 10 years ago with about half that number of students. I have been one of the lead guides for nearly all of these tours. It’s always an adventure, but this year was one of the more memorable trips because of the beautiful clouds and quick change in weather.
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Tags: Bill Wilson, boating, Chum salmon, Dyes Inlet, Education, kayak, Olympic Outdoor Center, Salmon, Salmon Kayak Tours, Spring Courtright
Posted in Boaters, shippers, Education, Fish, Marine mammals, On writing, Photographs, Recreation, Salmon | No Comments »

Salmon in the Classroom survives in Central Kitsap

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

Central Kitsap’s Salmon in the Classroom program been going on longer than the one sponsored by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. So when I heard that the state’s Salmon in the Classroom program was being eliminated for budget reasons, I had a hunch that it might not affect Central Kitsap schools.

“The program was too important to us to have it rely on the vagaries of state funding,” Tex Lewis told me for a story in today’s Kitsap Sun.

In March 2009, sixth-graders at Woodlands Elementary School observed a two-headed salmon hatched in an aquarium as part of the Salmon in the Classroom program.
Kitsap Sun photo

Lewis is a leader with the Clear Creek Task Force, which took over the program when the Central Kitsap Kiwanis Club disbanded. (See Brynn Grimley’s July 7 story in the Kitsap Sun.)

Reporter Susan Gilmore’s article in the Seattle Times described how the state was eliminating its Salmon in the Classroom program to save more than $200,000 a year for Fish and Wildlife. The program involves environmental education for an estimated 40,000 students each year, she reported.

Paul Dorn, salmon recovery coordinator for the Suquamish Tribe, told me that the state’s program has supported a few aquariums in Kitsap County, and he hopes the tribe can pick up the cost for continuing and possibly expanding the program outside of Central Kitsap. Check out my story in the Kitsap Sun for details.
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Tags: Clear Creek Task Force, Education, Environmental education, Salmon, Salmon in the Classroom, Tex Lewis
Posted in Education, Salmon, Streams, Tribes | 1 Comment »