Creating River Stewards: Monitoring Water Quality of Public Lands 2024

Each Spring, SYRCL’s Education Department and the Tahoe National Forest offer Creating River Stewards: Monitoring Water Quality of Public Lands for 9^th through 12th grade students.

During this program, area high school students are trained in water quality monitoring practices, collecting water quality data, analyzing and interpreting the data they collect, and learning ways to become stewards of the Yuba River.

This educational opportunity is funded by the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) through the Forest Service Greening STEM Grant.

This year, nearly sixty students participated in this opportunity. The program reached seventeen environmental science students from Bitney Prep High School, ten Climate Change Club students from Nevada Union High School, and thirty-two chemistry students from Ghidotti Early College High School.

This program consisted of in-classroom teaching and a field trip to the Oregon Creek Day Use Area for hands-on learning.

In-Classroom Preparatory Lessons:

South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL)’s River Education Director Monique Streit, SYRCL’s River Monitoring Coordinator Abby Messe, and a Forest Service Conservation Education Program Manager visited the students at Bitney Prep High School, Nevada Union, and Ghidotti Early College High School to teach one 60-minute lesson to help them become more familiar with their local watershed.

Students were taught:

What a watershed is and its features
Negative impacts on watersheds including farming, mining, and logging
Mapping where the Yuba watershed is located
An overview of the full project.

The second preparatory lesson focused on what to expect during the field day and gave an overview of the Public Service Announcement (PSA) project students will complete at the program’s end.

Field Day:

SYRCL’s River Education Director, Hydrologist, and River Monitoring Coordinator, along with the Tahoe National Forest Conservation Educator and their Forest Service Hydrologist, met with Bitney Prep High School, Nevada Union High School, and Ghidotti Early College High School classes. All three schools’ students visited Oregon Creek Day Use Area, a Yuba River crossing in the Tahoe National Forest. This location is important because SYRCL has been conducting water quality monitoring here for twenty-two years through its River Monitoring program.

Once at the site, SYRCL and Tahoe National Forest staff introduced the five water quality parameters — air temperature, water temperature, specific conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity – to the students and then reviewed water quality monitoring procedures.

The students worked in small groups and were paired with a SYRCL staff member, River Monitor (volunteer), or Forest Service Hydrologist. Students went through SYRCL’s full water quality monitoring process. This activity was aimed at teaching students how to become community scientists by giving them the skills needed to become a River Monitor.

Water quality monitoring is exceptionally important on the Yuba given recent threats posed by drought, increased numbers of visitors to the river, and fire. SYRCL, like many other environmental organizations, depends on community scientists to help keep its water quality monitoring program running.

Later, students analyzed the data they collected during their field day. They were asked to compare it to the existing data set SYRCL has collected over the past 22 years, which is available online, and analyze it in relation to prior drought and high-flow years. They were also asked to look at the data set to identify trends and develop questions. The group identified ways humans have a negative impact on the water quality and ways to mitigate these impacts.

By teaching students to monitor water quality and also how to be good river stewards, the program is able to tie science to outcomes and teach students how to become agents of change.

Post-Activity Lesson & Final Presentation:

SYRCL’s Education Director and Forest Service Conservation Educator later returned to the classroom to reflect on the data students collected and the ways they can become stewards of the watershed. Students then presented their PSA projects (poster, video, social media campaign, or comic strip) to their peers, teachers, SYRCL staff, and Tahoe National Forest Staff. The PSA project is designed to inform and educate the public about actions they can take to help protect their local watershed. The students worked in small groups or individually to create a PSA.

Program/Project Goals

The “Creating River Stewards: Monitoring Water Quality on Public Lands” project provided students with the tools they need to become community scientists by:

Training them in water quality monitoring practices;
Teaching them to apply these skills in teams at a nearby and popular river crossing on Tahoe National Forest land;
Helping them to interpret the data they collect to better understand various impacts on water quality, including increased visitation, rain events, and drought;
Problem solving as they compare it to existing water quality monitoring results; and
Creating meaningful and effective public service announcements to educate the public how to be stewards of the watershed.

Since SYRCL’s water quality monitoring results span 22 years and represent the longest running set of community-collected river monitoring data, students were able to analyze their data regarding a number of factors.

Impact on Educators

Through conversations with participating educators, they expressed how much their students enjoyed the program and how many students who do not usually participate in class, actively engaged in the field day activities.

Alison Harper, Environmental Science Teacher from Bitney Prep, talked about how much she appreciated the opportunity to take her students into the field to collect scientific monitoring data. Many of her students do not have the opportunity to engage in field work and the school does not have the resources to purchase necessary equipment to collect water quality data.

Partnering with Tahoe National Forest and SYRCL not only provides great opportunities for students to work with scientists, but also for teachers to access additional resources they would not be able to otherwise. Tom Kirwin, Chemistry Teacher from Ghidotti Early College High School, shared how much value he saw in the program. He shared that often in chemistry, students have a difficult time finding the relevance in what they are learning. Through this program, students conducted a titration to determine the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, which involves chemistry. Students were able to connect what they have learned in the classroom and apply it to field work and see how chemistry is used in the environmental field.

The “Creating River Stewards” program provided educators with the opportunity to make connections with students with the real-life application of curriculum they were learning in class, like data analysis, statistics, California’s water, and watersheds. This program complemented the teachers’ curriculum and tied into multiple subject areas including science, math, and technology.

Impact on Students

The “Creating River Stewards” program provided students with practical applications of scientific topics in their community. They were able to acknowledge that individuals can have a positive or negative impact on water quality. They were also able to engage in conversation around actionable ways they can reduce their impact on the watershed.

The program exposed students to career and volunteer opportunities relating to hydrology and water quality. They were also introduced to a location on National Forest land where some have not been to before.

When asked about their favorite part of the project, students said how much they enjoyed creating the PSA presentations and seeing their classmates’ presentations. Others enjoyed the field trip best and collecting the stream data. Overall, students expressed how much they liked the hands-on aspects of the project and felt like they were making contributions to the scientific community.