What was an old fish hatchery has become one of the more unique outdoor classrooms in Oregon. Just east of Medford, the Butte Falls Natural Resources Center is a new science hub for the mountain town of Butte Falls, which is surrounded by forests and creeks.
For Ben DeCarlow, a middle school science teacher in Butte Falls, this is an exciting new chapter for the charter school’s outdoor education program.
“I grew up in Medford going up to the forest in this area almost every weekend as a kid,” he says. “Now I get to share that enjoyment and excitement with the next generation.”
It began nearly 10 years ago when the state decommissioned a 100-year-old fish hatchery—the first hatchery built in Oregon. Seeing an educational opportunity, the Butte Falls School District purchased the 13-acre property, including former hatchery facilities, forests, a wetland, and creek access. The district began transforming the facilities into a series of learning stations and classrooms.
With support from the Gray Family Foundation in 2021, Ben led an effort to develop the Center’s place-based curriculum using guidelines from the National Geographic Geo-Inquiry process and Next Generation Science Standards.
“Since receiving the grant, we are at 20 stations completely built out for first through fifth grades,” he says. Students have been coming twice a week to the Center and combining the outdoor time with classroom learning.
During one activity, students observe the long-term effects of clear-cut logging adjacent to the property. With access to Ginger Creek on site and Big Butte Creek nearby, they measure the effects of erosion, pollution and runoff in the stream, which historically have both been fish-bearing. To help them, college students from Southern Oregon University also visit the site as part of their own capstone projects. They aid the younger students to take water samples, make observations and gauge water quality.
Now students can ask: what would it take to bring native fish back to Ginger Creek?
“We think in the next few years, we may have fish be able to come back to their natural spawning area,” Ben says.
The are other projects, too—including a student-led weather station, certified kitchen space, and a vegetable garden located at the site of a former fish pond.