“I can’t believe it, these boots are magic!”
Drew, 9, was up to his ankles in a creek near Bend, his net ready to capture bugs. Never mind that he was wading in world-class trout waters just minutes from his school—he couldn’t believe that water wasn’t seeping into his socks. At the end of the day, he announced what he wanted for Christmas: a pair of rubber boots.
“Who knows, maybe he was going to ask for an iPod before,” says Kolleen Yake, Education Director for the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council.
Yake leads the Upstream Project, which each year gives more than 3,000 kids in Central Oregon the chance to get their hands on local streams—often for the first time.
“Because we’re so close to the mountains, people assume everybody here knows how to fly fish. But that’s not true across the board.”
Through a grant from the Gray Family Foundation, the program is expanding to new field trip sites like Whychus Creek, where a recent dam removal opened passage for fish. More than 600 students have visited Whychus Creek to take water samples, count macroinvertebrates and plant trees and shrubs—all to prepare for the return of steelhead.
It all adds up to more than a lesson plan. The students are doing real restoration work in their backyard streams, and in the process, falling in love with those streams.
The grant is also helping train teachers to lead excursions themselves. This will multiply the reach of the Upstream Project to schools across Central Oregon.
“We’re helping teachers accomplish their benchmarks while giving these students incredible outdoor experiences,” Yake says.