BLM-Oregon's Glide School Partnership:
Three Years of Learning in Nature's Classroom


Students at Glide Middle School in Glide, Oregon, have been benefiting from hands-on learning about water quality and ecosystems as part of a partnership between the Glide School District, the Umpqua National Forest, and BLM's Roseburg District. Beginning in 1996, three successive eighth-grade classes have helped the agencies to collect water quality data in the Little River Adaptive Management Area. "Adaptive management" is a land management technique that utilizes monitoring results to guide future actions.


Glide Middle School science teacher Peggy Kahl learns how to measure stream flow within the Little River watershed from BLM-Roseburg hydrologist Ed Rumbold.
Student leaders receive instruction in operating the Horiba Checker from BLM and FS hydrologists.

 


Each fall, at the beginning of the school year, agency hydrologists and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialists hold a seminar for incoming students. There, the scientists train a team of six student leaders in GIS techniques and the use of a Horiba Water Quality Checker for measurement of stream pH, conductivity, turbidity, and other water quality elements. For the remainder of the school year, small teams of students, guided by science teacher Peggy Kahl and a student leader, measure water quality at five locations within the Little River watershed on a weekly basis. The measurements are providing a baseline for the water quality of the streams in the lower portion of the Little River watershed, helping BLM and U.S. Forest Service (FS) scientists to better understand the relationship of various management practices to stream conditions.


Dean Pindell, Glide Middle School Principal, (second from left) and Rich Pastor, BLM Roseburg hydrologist, (fourth from left) oversee student monitoring.
Steve Hofford, Umpqua National Forest hydrologist, demonstrates proper placement of a probe.


Students download collected data from the Horiba Checker to a school personal computer (supplied, with other equipment, by BLM and FS), and telefax a hard copy of their field notes to the BLM hydrologist. Next, they transfer the data to GIS Arcview software, which correlates it with sample locations; students can then see how water quality relates to other components of the watershed's ecosystems and to ecosystem management practices. The students also e-mail their measurements to the website of the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) program, a worldwide network of students, teachers, and research scientists who monitor the worldwide environment and share observations via the Internet.


Students measure the water quality of streams within the Little River watershed on a weekly basis for both land management agencies.

 


BLM's Roseburg District is currently developing additional partnership programs with Glide High School teachers.


For further information, please contact Dayne Barron, Little River Adaptive Management Area Coordinator, at BLM-Roseburg, 777 NW Garden Valley Blvd., Roseburg, OR 97470, telephone (541) 440-4931, e-mail d1barron@or.blm.gov.


Please also visit the following websites:
BLM Oregon Environmental Education - http://www.or.blm.gov/EE
GLOBE Program - http://www.globe.gov
Little River Adaptive Management Area- http://www.or.blm.gov/roseburg/littleriverama/

 

Last Updated: July 15, 2003

For questions about our programs contact Bibi Booth
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