Education

2024 Environmentalist of the Year Award

2024 Environmentalist of the Year Award

The application period for 2024 is open!
Deadline: March 18, 2024

The Environmentalist of the Year Scholarship is offered each year to a graduating high school senior pursuing a degree in an environmental field (science, advocacy, education, art, communication, technology, sustainability, etc.). We have offered this $4,000 scholarship ($1,000/year for four years) annually to local students since 2002.

Inspiring the Next Generation of Environmentalist: Another Successful Salmon Expedition Season for SYRCL’s Education Department

Inspiring the Next Generation of Environmentalist: Another Successful Salmon Expedition Season for SYRCL’s Education Department

Environmental educators at the South Yuba River Citizens League just finished up another season of Salmon Expedition field trips on the Lower Yuba. These trips take students to see spawning wild Chinook Salmon, learn about the history of our watershed and the Nisenan people within it, and visit Lower Long Bar restoration site. This program has been running for seventeen years and this year was our largest one yet! The Expedition season runs from early October to Mid-November, when we can expect to see Spring and Fall run Chinook, with trips going out five days a week. This year SYRCL educators taught, investigated alongside, and spotted salmon on the Yuba with more than 2,000 students, teachers, chaperones and community members.

SYRCL’s Science and Education Departments Team Up for another successful Earthwatch – Girls In Science Expedition

SYRCL’s Science and Education Departments Team Up for another successful Earthwatch – Girls In Science Expedition

Each summer SYRCL partners with the Earthwatch Institute and Tahoe National Forest (TNF) to host a field science expedition for high school juniors and seniors interested in STEAM careers. This year’s first session was completed in the last week of June and focused on Restoring Sierra Meadows: The Source of California’s Water. Six students from throughout California joined our team to assist with monitoring work in Van Norden Meadow.

SYRCL’s Education Department Empowers Youth as River Stewards Through its Water Quality Monitoring Program

SYRCL’s Education Department Empowers Youth as River Stewards Through its Water Quality Monitoring Program

One of the more recent additions to SYRCL’s education outreach has been the Water Quality Monitoring Program. Each Spring, SYRCL and Tahoe National Forest offer “Creating River Stewards: Monitoring Water Quality of Public Lands” for 6th through 12th grade students. This educational opportunity is funded by a National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) Forest Service Greening STEM Grant. 

In this program, area High School students are trained in water quality monitoring practices that emulate SYRCL’s award winning River Monitoring Program. Students collect water quality data, analyze and interpret the data they collect, and then use what they learned to teach others in their community about how they can be better stewards of the watershed.