Mapping, Conservation, and K-12 Education
by Jim Proctor

In Douglas County, educators are using the Conservation Registry in conjunction with the Oregon Explorer Natural Resource Digital Library to connect online resources with field-based learning activities so students can experience how natural resource information is collected, shared, and applied to on-the-ground management.

The program, called Oregon Explorers (like the digital library) is a K-12 initiative funded by the Gray Family Fund and coordinated by Alder Creek Children’s Forest.

One of the initiative’s first projects is the Alder Creek Riparian Restoration and Interpretive Trail. Located on the Alder Creek Children’s Forest site one mile west of Canyonville in southern Douglas County, Alder Creek is a small, summer-dry creek that empties into Jordan Creek and the South Umpqua River north of Canyonville. Like many tributaries of the South Umpqua it has been affected by a variety of land uses, from timber production to ranching to rural settlement and commercial development.

Maintenance and restoration of adequate instream and riparian habitat in small tributaries such as Alder Creek will cumulatively improve flow and habitat characteristics of the entire South Umpqua basin.

The Alder Creek project will be undertaken by middle school youth from Days Creek School, near Canyonville. With funding from the Oregon Explorers initiative and Cascade Community Credit Union, students will construct a short interpretive trail on both sides of Alder Creek and mark and identify vegetation near the trail.

They will then learn how to remove exotics such as Himalayan blackberry and transplant native vegetative cover in the riparian area, as well as assess the quality of instream habitat (e.g., existence of downed woody debris). Students will prepare text for interpretive signage along the trail to describe native species, significant riparian and instream habitat, and the restoration work they did, and help install signage along the trail. Finally, using GPS devices students will mark the course of the trail and major landmarks for upload into Google Earth. This file and associated pictures and reports will be shared with other students participating in the Oregon Explorers project via an online teaching and collaborative community web site called Moodle. Project data and public documents will be linked to the Conservation Registry record.

As mapping is a great way for K-12 students to learn about and share knowledge related to conservation, the Conservation Registry and the Oregon Explorer digital library will be used for gathering natural resource information. The Conservation Registry’s data entry capacity will provide the means for users to share projects, describe actions and update progress. In addition to map-based interfaces, Oregon Explorers will use their Moodle site where teachers and students can share data, resources, and perspectives on their field-based activities.

Oregon Explorers is being developed and tested in Douglas County, but all related curricula and resources are available online to any school in the state of Oregon with the ultimate goal of connecting Oregon’s two greatest treasures—its youth and its natural resource wealth—via the latest field and online technologies. With these tools and methods, young Oregonians will be well prepared for the future, whether as aspiring natural resource professionals, or as informed citizens participating in future natural resource policy decisions.

Check out the Alder Creek Riparian Restoration and Interpretive Trail project in the Registry.

Visit the Alder Creek Children’s Forest web site.

Watch the project take shape on Moodle.