Olympic Service Day and Elwha Exploration Day
Our Olympic campus was buzzing with activity as we welcomed volunteers, friends and NatureBridge board members for a spring clean-up day earlier this month. Volunteers helped inventory gear supplies, cleaned cabins, raked the lawns, scrubbed signs and windows, and organized storage and administrative areas. Former NatureBridge educators and students joined the crew, along with community members and newcomers to campus. Together, they tackled big tasks and small jobs, assisting staff in caring for our historic campus. Campus Director Jen Kidder summed up the experience, exclaiming, "I can't begin to tell you how helpful this was to our staff and how beneficial this will be for our students!"
Friends and community members joined our campus educators the following day for Elwha Exploration Day, an opportunity to walk in the footsteps of NatureBridge students discovering the Elwha River’s history and engaging in hands-on science activities exploring the river’s ongoing restoration. Beginning with a coffee and banana bread reception in StormKing Hall, the morning elicited bright smiles and excitement despite the drizzly weather. Education Manager Chelsea Leven led the group in a warm-up activity in which participants sketched their ideas of what a "healthy Pacific Northwest river" looks like and then shared their drawings with one another. Afterwards, Chelsea presented a brief history of the Elwha River and its dams (both their implementation and removal), along with stories and images describing the Elwha's significance to the indigenous people of the area who have lived and cared for the lands and waters here since time immemorial.
Then it was time to don rain gear and head out into the field! Attendees caravanned to the banks of the Elwha, dodging raindrops as they went. Gathered along the riverbank, participants had the opportunity to learn from NatureBridge educators Meg, Cheyenne, Emily, Aspen and Maddie while exploring an area that, before the removal of the dams, had been underwater for years. Utilizing the same tools that NatureBridge students access, attendees split into small groups to measure water turbidity, pH and flow rate, collect and identify macroinvertebrates and analyze gravel deposits. Everyone enjoyed learning about the citizen science projects in which NatureBridge students have the opportunity to participate by sharing their findings from these riverside experiments with local scientists.
The last stop of the day was at the mouth of the Elwha, where it meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca and eventually flows out to the Pacific Ocean. Jen Kidder directed the group's attention to the path the river now takes out to the strait and the ways in which the landscape and sediment deposits have changed since the removal of the dams. Participants shared their "rock and stick" moments from the day in small groups (describing the thing that "rocked" the most and the thing that would "stick" with them after they left). As the wind picked up and the water crashed along the shore, attendees expressed their appreciation for the day's learning and said their goodbyes.
We are grateful to everyone who joined us for these events at our Olympic campus this past weekend, and we hope to see you again soon!
Editor's note: The Elwha River restoration project is one of several historic dam removals happening on the West Coast in recent years. You can read more about the larger dam removal and land restoration movement here.
Stories
Fall Reflections from NatureBridge Yosemite
As an environmental science educator, I spend a lot of time teaching about nature, but this season I’ve been finding that as it turns out, nature has a lot to teach us, too. Sometimes I can let the trees, the meadow, and the lichen teach for me. They show us how to respect each other’s boundaries, how to celebrate differences, how to work together, and how to lean on each other’s strengths in order to exist in a new place. These lessons felt incredibly relevant to me heading into the first week of November, a notoriously busy time at NatureBridge Yosemite. I wanted to focus on messages of kindness and inclusivity with my students, I wanted them to feel a sense of belonging in this new space, and I also hoped that they would share those messages with others.
An Incredible 10th Anniversary of Evening on the Lake
On October 25, the Amazon Meeting Center in downtown Seattle buzzed with celebratory energy as over 300 NatureBridge guests and supporters gathered for the 10th anniversary of "Evening on the Lake," our signature Pacific Northwest fundraising event for our Olympic campus.
"Science became fun" at NatureBridge for Alum Laura Lomeli Russert
Laura Lomeli Russert is a NatureBridge alum who grew up in Groveland, CA and now calls Washington, D.C. home. Laura’s journey with NatureBridge began when she attended the Golden Gate campus as a young student with her class from Tenaya Elementary. Laura credits NatureBridge with shaping not only her love for nature but also her passion for education and science. "Science became fun,” she recalls. “You weren’t learning from a textbook anymore, and it became so much more real." Her hands-on, scientific experiences at NatureBridge laid the foundation for her eventual pursuit of a Ph.D. in psychology. “I feel like I owe a lot to NatureBridge."