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Liedall Outdoor Learning Lab
Located at Ferndale Elementary School
53445 W Ferndale Road
Progress Report February 28, 2006 by Bob Chicken, STELLAR Coordinator
Garden Shed
The garden shed was delivered in the summer and was leveled in place on the
pad. A few shingles were loss during delivery and need to be replaced. It
filled a real need for a place to store boots, tools, hoses, a wheelbarrow
and a host of other items needed to do student projects. The additional
garden tools purchased with school funds last fall have been used on a
regular basis.
Stream Restoration
Whitman College and Larry Moore’s Tree Service contributed to the placement
of a four foot diameter maple stump and root wad for fish habitat. It also
serves as a student observation platform.
Recently the City of Milton-Freewater delivered to the school yard six
pieces ranging from a small root wad to a 12 foot 18 inch log. Students have
moved three smaller logs on site and rolled a four foot length by 30 inch
diameter piece about 80 feet. The intent is to place the longer logs in the
creek and to bury the latter piece in the ground for student monitoring its
deterioration.
Streamkeepers
Because of my funding limitations, on hands activities with the sixth and
fifth graders (called Streamkeepers) have been reduced to one afternoon a
week. This has resulted in less progress and learning opportunities than
planned but still a lot has been accomplished. A lot of effort was required
in the fall and winter to recover ground loss to blackberry recovery and
weeds.
Additional ground cloth was laid to assist in blackberry control.
The fall community clean up day was poorly attended but the mother and two
elementary students did a lot. A large school district utility trailer was
filled with debris including limbs from four flowering trees that hosts
codling moth. The stumps will be removed this spring. A request was made to
the Blue Mountain Horticultural Society for two replacement trees for Arbor
Day.
Whitman Mission, National Park Service, provided funds to purchase native
plants from Plants of the Wild. Additional plants were purchased from
Champoeg Nursery with Watershed Council funds Both Streamkeepers and Science
Club kids worked hard to finish the planting before the ground froze before
Thanksgiving. A few of the small tube container stock frost heaved out of
the ground. That was a new phenomenon for the students.
Work was begun in preparing a site in-stream for a stream gauge flow box.
Streamkeepers plant daffodil bulbs for their respective classes.
Other class uses Mrs. Heard’s first grade visited to make observations. Mrs. Zerba’s planted
camas bulbs with Streamkeepers assistance. Ms. Hendricks’s fourth grade
science classes collected insects and planted a pea garden. The science club
unpacked the Plants of the Wild order and helped with planting, vegetation
control, water quality monitoring.
Wildlife sightings
Besides ducks on the pond or creek, snakes and a nesting killdeer pair are
on site. There is evidence that birds are using the perch pole. The fish
have not been sighted since early March.
Funding
Funding for my salary for this latter period has been provided by The Oregon
Watershed Enhancement Board grant, approximately 12 hours / week of direct
student contact and additional hours for planning and preparation. The
purchased planting stock used this winter/spring was from the Walla Walla
Nursery Company and Plants of the Wild. Funding for the plants was provided
by Trout Unlimited funds received last spring. Ocean spray bare root plants
were donated by Columbia County (WA) Soil and Water Conservation District.
Poplar and willow cuttings came from the river. Ferndale School has
purchased gravel for the path; a tool shed kit, and a 6x8 greenhouse. The
high school class of Mr. Jim Paulson will put the kit together for us.
Science Club
The Ferndale Science Club has about 12 students this spring quarter, grade
1-6 with one 3rd grader and 2 first graders, that meet Tuesdays after school
for 90 minutes. Teacher Karen Hendricks is co-leader. Students worked on the
inventory spreadsheet, photography and some outdoor lab work. The club is
now raising steelhead eggs as apart of a study of fish habitat needs. The
fry will be released in Weston Pond. Zietel Gray, hydrologist technician
from the Walla Walla Basin Watershed Council.
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