Who’s Crawling Up Rock Creek?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Last week, students from Rock Creek Middle School came out for their last visit to their eponymous creek to do some macroinvertebrate surveys. They had some help from another Green Team for their survey: students from Clackamas High School. Clackamas High School students have been doing macro surveys since October and they even gave an outstanding presentation on their findings from the past year at our Green Team East Side Student Summit, so the Rock Creek Middle School students could not have found better mentors for this activity. The Clackamas Green Team first talked about why doing macro surveys is important by explaining how this survey can give us a good indication to how healthy this creek actually is. They explained that it can be better to look at the invertebrate population in streams rather than looking at chemistry and temperature (which can frequently fluctuate). These bugs live in the stream all the time and are subject to these fluctuations. Since some types of invertebrates are very pollution sensitive and others are more pollution tolerant, looking at the types and numbers of invertebrates in the stream can give a fairly accurate indication of stream health. Then the Rock Creek students split off with their High School mentors to go see what they could find.

It was exciting for everybody because a lot of different kinds of macroinvertebrates were found including pollution sensitive ones like mayflies, stoneflies, and green rock worms, a kind of caddisfly! The presence of these indicate that the stream has not been too compromised by pollution. The restoration work that both Rock Creek Middle School and Clackamas High School have done on Rock Creek in planting natives, and removing invasive plants, all contribute to reducing the pollution flowing in the creek by reducing the amount of sediment, heat, and some chemical pollutants like heavy metals. During their last visit of the school year, it was nice to see that the effort that these students have done all year in trying to restore the Rock Creek Watershed is paying off in keeping the stream healthy.

SOLVE Green Team and the Rock Creek watershed thank you both Rock Creek Middle School and Clackamas for all of your hard work this year!

Thanks to Water Environmental Services for funding this project!

Rock Creek Middle School and the Tall Grass Smackdown

By SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest Member, Charlie

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A lot of the work at our sites is suddenly becoming relevant as the skies are drying up and the grass is growing much longer. This was especially evident at Rock Creek on Monday when Rock Creek Middle School came out to help improve the riparian ecosystem.

When students got to the site, they noticed that the grass growing around the plants seemed to have grown a full foot in the week since they had visited the site two weeks ago. Already many of the plants that the Rock Creek Middle School Green Team had planted this winter were dwarfed by the grass and fighting for the precious sunlight. To encourage these young native plants to thrive and grow into a nice healthy riparian ecosystem, the Rock Creek Middle School students got right to work placing coffee bags around the base of the young native plants. These coffee bags are made of jute – a biodegradable grass – and when staked around our native plants, they suppress the resource-stealing grass from growing right next to the native plants. Students also spent some time mulching the recently coffee-bagged plants. As the weather continues to get drier, having a nice layer of mulch above the roots will be really helpful in preventing these young short-rooted plants from drying up before they really get established.

After they left the site, their hard work was evident: each native plant had their own growing and breathing (and photosynthesizing?) space, like a little sanctuary island in a sea of tall menacing grass. With their help this new site is definitely on the way to developing into a nice native habitat. Rock Creek thanks you, Rock Creek Middle School Green Team!

Happy Belated Earth Day Rock Creek!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A brand new trimester of energetic students from Rock Creek Middle School joined us today at Rock Creek.  Charlie(SOLVE) taught students all about why past students and community volunteers have worked so hard to plant native trees and shrubs along the creek, providing enhanced habitat and better water quality.  Students protected those new plantings with a fresh layer of Douglas Fir mulch.

Mulching our plantings is a critical part of the restoration process.  The mulch mimics growing conditions in a healthy riparian forest.  A healthy forest has a natural layer of ‘mulch’ (leaf litter and decaying organics, or duff layer) that provides a protective covering for immature plants.

FROM THE AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANTS SOCIETY (APPLICABLE TO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST TOO):

ADVANTAGES OF MULCH

• An effective and safe way to reduce weeds.
• Reduces evaporation resulting in less watering.
• Keeps soil temperatures cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
• Using organic mulches, results in the soil benefiting from addition of nutrients as the mulch decomposes. This helps create good soil structure as it greatly increases the biological activity in the soil (especially earth worms and other beneficial microbes).
• Protects the soil surface from the compacting effect of rain.
• Organic mulch decomposes over time and this benefits the soil by the addition of nutrients, especially nitrogen

Students also got a chance to critically think about all the benefits of a healthy riparian corridor by playing a Riparian Metaphors game.  Students partnered up and pulled out objects from a bag then worked together to think how that object represents a healthy riparian cooridor.

Some objects -

A piggy bank with leaves sticking out – Healthy riparian zones have vegetated banks!

A sponge – Healthy riparian zones act as a sponge for polluted stormwater.

A camo shirt – Healthy riparian zones can offer cover for animal escaping from predators

Thank you Rock Creek Middle School!

Thank you Clackamas County Water Environment Services for funding this project!

Rock Creek Middle School: Planting and Protecting Natives

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On Monday, while most students might be groggily trying to readjust to the school day schedule from the weekend, our Rock Creek Middle School Green Team students had the opportunity to wake up in the beautiful February sunshine (something seems wrong with that last sentence…) Not to mention, they also got some great work done in their community.

When they arrived to the site, the enthusiastic students got right to work. While some students learned how to plant native riparian and wetland plants along the stream and began putting them in the ground, others were helping maintain the already planted plants by placing coffee bags around them. These coffee bags are biodegradable sacks that were used to transport raw coffee beans that were donated by coffee roasters for this cause. When placed around a plant, they will suppress invasive species from growing right next to these young natives and prevent them from stealing resources such as water, sunlight, and nutrients. Overall, nearly 40 plants were planted and many more were protected with coffee bags, an impressive feat for their brief visit to the site.

Thanks to these kids, Rock Creek is already looking more beautiful with the prospect of a healthy riparian zone!

Honoring Our Rivers

Reflection by Gabrielle, Grade 7 Rock Creek Middle School

Inspired by any of the rivers and streams in the Willamette watershed? Submit any written or drawn inspirations and maybe even see it published in Honoring Our Rivers, an anthology of student work from K-College. Today is your last day for submissions! Go here for more information.

We have been encouraging our students to take a break from their amazing hard work and reflect on their experiences at the sites. We have submitted a lot of the amazing work that they produced! The following are some of our favorite poems we’ve sent in, especially relating to Green Team and the work we do:

I am in nature

I am a line of water

Keep me very clean

~Sona, Grade 5, Forest Park Elementary School

Pulling and planting

We will conquer invasives

Rinearson will bloom

-Jamie, Grade 10, Gladstone High School

Help me clean the creek

And for all the plants to drink

And for the green grass

~Elizabeth, grade 7, Rock Creek Middle School

“Invasives!” We yell

As we charge the blackberries

Native trees will grow

Slashing and pulling

We conquer the invasives

And restore natives

Ferns and snowberries

Sit in the black pots, waiting,

SOLV will plant them all

~Rosyln, Grade 11, Gladstone High School

Rock Creek Rocks!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This Monday as the Portland metro area was enjoying a break from the current dump of rain we’ve been experiencing, Rock Creek Middle School 7th graders enjoyed a nice break from their normal classroom routine. On this unexpectedly pleasant sunny day, nearly 40 Rock Creek Middle School Students arrived to help restore a degraded section of their eponymous Rock Creek.

This section very recently was a grassy slope that led right up to the stream. The shallow root system of the grass was not providing adequate stability for the stream bank, and there were few trees providing habitat and shade for the creek. A group of volunteers had come in earlier in the winter to plant over 100 native plants and trees in this area. However, unfortunately just planting the trees won’t be enough to fully restore this site; lots of maintenance is needed of these planted plants so that they become established and can survive in the long run. Today Rock Creek Middle School helped out with one such maintenance techniques: Coffee bagging. By staking down biodegradable sacks that once carried raw coffee beans around the base of each of these plants, Rock Creek students were helping suppress anything from growing right around these plants in the next several months. This gives these little guys a head start so that no grasses or fast growing forbes overcome the native plants, taking away resources like sunlight and water. After tucking the plants in for the rest of winter, we also sang a few of them a lullaby and told them bedtime stories (this last bit is not really necessary for restoration’s sake, but we like to think that it helped them become more comfortable in their new environment).

Students also spent some time reflecting on rivers and streams and composed some very nice reflections about their time both at Rock Creek and at other rivers. Here are a few amazing Haikus from yesterday:

Help me clean the creek
And for all the plants to drink
And for the green grass
~E. P.

Birds, birds everywhere
Chirping, singing songs
Wanting to hear me
~M.O.

Thanks Rock Creek for all of your hard work and your beautiful insights!

A Green Team shout out!

Clackamas High School Green Team!

Green Team staff love working with students and teachers from the North Clackamas School District… here’s a nice story about recent outings!

From the North Clackamas School District Newsletter:

SOLV GREEN TEAMS TACKLE ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROJECTS AT THREE SCHOOLS

For decades, SOLV has been on a mission to keep Oregon green.  Now the non-profit is partnering with three North Clackamas Schools to expand that mission into environmental learning.  In partnership with science teachers at Clackamas High, Rex Putnam High, and Rock Creek Middle School, SOLV is teaching a new generation ways to protect the environment through science class.  Here are some of the projects students have tackled:

Clackamas High:
Presenters from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife and the Clackamas River Basin Council told students about the nutrients dead salmon deposit into the forest and stream as they decay.  Students then dissected the dead salmon to learn about fish anatomy and physiology.  The lesson ended with students trying the Japanese art of Gyotaku, a traditional form of fish printing used to record the size and type of fish.  Students also got creative with writing reflections from the salmon’s point of view.

Rex Putnam High:
Rex Putnam ‘s environmental science classes worked with SOLV to restore Boardman Creek in Milwaukie.  After removing an invasive patch of Armenian blackberry brambles, students got a lesson on native plants and invasive plants, and how the riparian zone can be improved by encouraging biodiversity.

Rock Creek Middle School:
SOLV brought a laboratory into the classroom, helping students with a macroenvertibrate survey, which provides an indicator of stream health and pollution.  Students learned a testing method called the pollution tolerance index to determine how clean a waterway is by the aquatic bugs and organisms they find.  Students tested the water from Rock Creek, which their school is named after.

It’s a bug’s life in Rock Creek

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Last Thursday we visited Rock Creek Middle School in their classroom for the last activity of the trimester – a macroinvertebrate survey!

Students in Christy Kelley’s class got the basics on macroinvertebrate testing.  Meghan(SOLV) filled the students in on the importance of finding macroinvertebrates, or insects and other living things that can be seen with the naked eye and have no backbone, as they are indicators of stream health and pollution.  Students came across stoneflies, mayflies and scuds.

With our middle school groups, SOLV uses a method of macroinvertebrate testing called Pollution Tolerance Index and this allows students to determine how clean a waterway is by the aquatic bugs and organisms they find.  Students even found several sensitive species.  Based on our data the stream rated a 16 which equals fair water quality.  (>23 = Excellent, 17-22 = Good, 11-16 = Fair, <10 = Poor)  See the data sheet below!

We are planting native trees and shrubs along Rock Creek to hopefully one day shade the stream and filter pollutants to improve water quality.  So maybe one day we will find an excellent macroinvertebrate survey at Rock Creek!

It’s Raining Straw

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It’s Raining Straw! Hallelujah!   …is probably what the Rock Creek riparian community was singing this Monday when Rock Creek Middle School came to get some work done, but more on why later. But first, the stage was set: the blackberry was gone, the native plants were placed out, the tools were ready. Suddenly our players arrive! A busload of 40 middle school students jump out and jump into their costumes of work gloves and boots. On cue, mother nature raises the curtain and what started out as a damp and frosty fall morning burst into a beautiful sunny autumn day and everyone gets to work! Our Rock Creek Middle School Green Team got a LOT of work done at SOLV’s Rock Creek site in Happy Valley. In just 40 minutes, they managed to plant some 100 native plants! We also managed to wrestle a few pesky blackberry root hearts out of the ground. And for the grand finale, we ripped open 5 bales of straw and sprinkled it around our site. Why did we make it rain hay on our riparian habitat we are attempting to restore? Other than for the simple pleasures of creating an homage to the falling leaves of autumn, and enjoying straw-themed puns (Hey, Rock Creek, Hay!), the straw we sprinkled around the site  is really good at temporarily slowing erosion from rain on bare river banks while we wait for the native plants we planted to really take root and grab onto that soil themselves. (Hay, thanks!) We got an enormous amount of work done in such short time and everyone had fun (it’s hard not to in such great weather!).

Students were able to recall all the reasons we are working so hard to remove invasives and plant natives in their spot along the creek, including but not limited to….

1.  Create a more diverse plant community for habitat

2.  Provide a varied root structure (deep and shallow roots) to really hold on to the soil

3.  Plant trees and shrubs that will provide shade for the stream

4.  Provide a streamside(riparian) buffer to filter toxins and pollutants from urban and agricultural runoff

Rock Creek Middle meets Rock Creek

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Rock Creek Middle School met the creek they are adopting this year and spent some time exploring.  Students arrived and immediately got to work removing big Armenian blackberry roots and reviewing their knowledge of riparian corridors with a fun game.Students worked tirelessly to remove blackberry, learning quickly about the size and depth of their roots.  A few especially hard workers even walked away with new SOLV t-shirts because they dug up the most gigantic root! Next, students thought creatively regarding the different objects in our riparian metaphor kit and shared their answers with their peers.  Students reviewed the awesome ways that native plants have deep and complex roots that hold our banks in place and filter out toxins from nearby houses and businesses.  We stood near good examples of trees like Ninebark and Alder that do just that for Rock Creek! We did a brief look at other native and invasive plants on site and the students drove away accomplished and aware of their stream. Thanks to our student photographers for the awesome photos and videos and thanks to the entire class for being watershed movie stars!