Wrapping Up Salmon Expeditions: The Crucial Role of Environmental Education for Students.  

The education team at the South Yuba River Citizens League just wrapped another successful season of salmon expeditions on the Lower Yuba River! Salmon Expeditions coincide with spawning season for Chinook salmon, and they run five-days a week from early October to late November.  During Salmon Expeditions, 3^rd-5^th graders from Nevada, Yuba, and Sutter counties experience a jam-packed field trip day that is both fun-filled and educational.  

The Salmon Expeditions consist of rafting down four miles of the Lower Yuba River to witness spawning Chinook salmon, with several stops along the way for students to participate in lessons and activities. During a modeling activity, students learn about the history of the Yuba River watershed, particularly how hydraulic and dredge mining during the Gold Rush impacted the landscape, salmon, and the Nisenan Tribe. Students also conduct an investigation where they find benthic macroinvertebrates and learn about their significance as an indicator species. The final stop takes place at Lower Long Bar, one of SYRCL’s most recent restoration sites designed to provide rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook salmon. While on the water, students observe both Spring-run and Fall-run spawning Chinook salmon, a keystone species in the Yuba River watershed.  

SYRCL’s education team consists of five individuals, led by SYRCL’s Education Director, Monique Streit, who recently was selected as the 2024 Northern Environmental Educator of the year by the California Association for Environmental & Outdoor Education (AEOE). When asked what makes leading these field trips so special, Caitlin Martin, SYRCL’s Education and Outreach Coordinator, said, “I love seeing the kids’ faces light up when they see a salmon for the first time or go down their first rapid or see a bald eagle. I love their excitement!”  

Our education team is lucky to be able to bring more and more students out on the water every year as the Salmon Expeditions program continues to grow.  This year, we took a total of 2,239 students and community members from 37 different schools onto the Lower Yuba this season, making it the program’s largest year yet! A huge thank you to H2O Adventures for working with SYRCL to provide these educational trips for students throughout the Yuba River Watershed.  

This year also marks the huge achievement of bringing every public school in Yuba County onto the river for Salmon Expeditions. Reaching such a broad number of students and schools would not be possible without the Yuba Water Agency, whose grant funding allows us to provide these trips to Yuba County students at no cost. A huge thank you to the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant Program and the Teichert Foundation, who provide funding for Nevada and Sutter County schools to be able to enjoy the expeditions at a discounted cost.  

Students’ learning extends beyond their time rafting down the Lower Yuba. SYRCL’s Salmon Expeditions are comprehensive, with the on-river field trip being bookended by in-classroom lessons. Integrating classroom lessons before and after the field trip helps students have a deeper understanding of the history of the Yuba River watershed and salmon biology. The program begins with an hour long in-classroom lesson, in which SYRCL’s education team familiarizes students with what a watershed is and the Chinook salmon life cycle. During the field trips, the guides from the amazing H20 Adventures work with SYRCL staff to provide valuable insight and impart knowledge to the students while on the rafts. As students raft the river, they get to see Chinook salmon in the act of spawning and building their redds (nests). This is a special, once-in-a-lifetime experience for the students.  

As an added benefit to this on-river learning, these trips allow students to experience the outdoors in a way that many of them may not otherwise have been able to.  Being on the river, the students have the opportunity to see wildlife up close and personal. In addition to Chinook salmon, students frequently witness river otters, bald eagles, osprey, and Steelhead trout. One student said their “favorite part of the trip was seeing bald eagles” while another said, “My favorite part was paddling and finding redds.” 

 A few weeks after the field trip, SYRCL’s education team returns for a post lesson, in which educators review the field trip, and dive deeper into the benefits of habitat restoration. Many of the students remember the trip fondly during the post lesson, and teachers have reinforced what a lasting impact the trip has on students. Jessica Lee from Ella Elementary said “The hands-on field trip was not only fun but gave students a first-hand experience of CA geology and history which helped them tremendously with their writing unit.”  The curriculum for these trips and classroom is aligned with state standards for history and social science, so that the trips feel like a natural extension of their classroom lessons. Another teacher at Lone Tree elementary, Amanda Kurtz said “I have taught at a few different schools, and this is by far the coolest opportunity I have seen for kiddos. The pre and post lesson was extremely beneficial, I was impressed with how much the students retained during these and were able to apply this to the trip and future science lessons in class.”  

These testimonies show how truly impactful these trips are for the kids. Connecting the kids to their local environment is incredibly beneficial. Getting children out into nature not only helps their development but also instills in them an appreciation and love for the natural world. The education team at SYRCL is proud to continue providing salmon expeditions, and we are excited to watch our program continue to grow in the future.