SEELEY LAKE - The Board of Supervisors for the Missoula Conservation District approved three grants from their winter grant cycle to support local conservation. Among the recipients was Seeley-Swan High School. SSHS received a $500 Operation Mini Grant for students in high school science classes to continue water quality monitoring of Morrell Creek near the high school.
SSHS Science Teacher Gretchen Watkins applied for the grant after they lost the funding from the Seeley Lake Sewer District this past fall. The Sewer District originally signed an agreement in 2015 with Missoula County Public Schools to fund up to $2,000 a year for water testing. The Board extended the agreement perpetually in 2016 until it was discontinued in the fall of 2021.
“I really wanted to keep that going for the students,” Watkins said. “It is such a cool project.”
In 2011, SSHS initiated the “Students-in-Action Morrell Creek Water Monitoring Project.” According to the “Stream Flows, Water Quality and Nutrient Export in Morrell Creek: Seeley-Swan High School Students-in-Action Monitoring Results 2020 Supplement to the 2015 Report,” along with providing a hands-on learning opportunity for students, objectives of the program included: monitoring the flows of Morrell Creek continuously to estimate the water yield; estimate nutrient, turbidity and total suspended solids concentrations and combine with the flow estimates to estimate total nutrient export above the sampling site; and provide a foundation for more complete nutrient loading estimates in the larger basin, a baseline for monitoring long-term changes in Morrell Creek and a comparison to other watersheds influenced by non-point sources.
The report also states the site location is important due to the proximity to downtown Seeley Lake, it precedes the inputs from other streams and the influence it has on the Clearwater River and Salmon Lake.
Watkins said the program is a placed-based education opportunity to teach students about water quality in their backyard. The students take the readings themselves, look at the data and can compare the data over time.
“It doesn’t get any better than that when you get down to teaching science,” Watkins said.
Watkins said in her Earth and Space Science class, they use the data to learn about the various environmental cycles. In Biology, they focus more specifically what the indicators can tell them about the fish and invertebrates in the creek.
This year’s Chemistry class is participating in the Rise Challenge. Watkins explained it is a program through FEMA where the students look at what is going on in their area and determine what kind of risks they have to natural disasters. Since they have 10 years of data of a watershed that drains off the National Forest land, they had a baseline data for water quality. Then following the Rice Ridge fire that happened in 2017, there is a peak of nitrates. The students could see how wildfires changed the water quality, something they did not realize occurred.
“It just brought it home to them how many connections the environment has,” Watkins said.
While students are still collecting water temperature, flow rates and turbidity, Watkins said it costs $2,000-$3,000 annually to pay for the nutrient samples to be processed by the Flathead Lake Biological Station. Even though the mini grant does not cover the entire cost, it fills a shortfall.
“At least we can take one sample a month and capture some of the data and still have that experience and limp it along until we can figure out something else,” Watkins said.
The Clearwater Resource Council helped SSHS apply for another grant through the Biological Station. If they receive that grant, Watkins said the program would be fully funded again. They hope to find out in April.
Watkins said she was so excited to receive this grant. She felt so bad for the students when the funding was taken away.
“I can still keep all the lessons I had planned and it won’t totally fall apart,” Watkins said. “It definitely engages the students in thinking about protecting their own community and rising to the challenge of being young adults and moving into the community and saying we want to make decisions. It is just a nice story to put it all together and I’m happy it can keep going.”
In addition to SSHS, two other organizations received a $500 Operation Mini Grant. The Wind River Bear Institute will use their grant to help promote their Bear Resistant Garbage Can Loaner Program to the Lolo community. The Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Group is using it to help cover operation expenses to reestablish their organization and advocate conservation practices from peak to creek in the Rattlesnake Watershed.
To learn more about the Missoula Conservation District grants program visit missoulacd.org or call the Missoula Conservation District 406-214-5131. To read the entire Student in Action Monitoring Results 2020 supplement visit https://www.seeleylake.com/home/customer_files/article_documents/2020studentsinactionreport.pdf
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