The River Mile (TRM) was established during the 2007-08 school year with in-the-field programs conducted during spring 2008 with seven schools and 289 3rd-12th grade students around Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. The program has expanded to include schools throughout the watershed and beyond.
Students participating in The River Mile Program.
TRM was started by the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area’s Education Specialist, Janice Elvidge, in 2008 and has since expanded throughout the Columbia River Watershed. The network of over 200 educators, 4,200 students, and hundreds of other partners, including scientists, are exploring the essential question, “How do relationships among components of an ecosystem affect watershed health?”.
A major feature of TRM is networking; network with other educators and community partners, connect with scientists and resource managers to learn about and care for the watershed in your area and to share best practices, data, ideas and information. Partnerships have made the difference.
The River Mile teacher training includes curriculum, workshops, materials, kits, and scientists volunteering to provide invaluable expertise and support.
In July 2020, TRM network program received a two-year, $100,000 EPA Environmental Education (EE) grant. This grant supports TRM’s efforts to engage K-12 students in real-world STEM through scientific research, data collection, and analysis. Field activities such as studying crayfish and water quality testing enable students to consider the effect of invasive species and water quality on the health of the watershed. “The EPA grant is an exciting opportunity to continue expanding The River Mile network’s reach, and specifically that of the Crayfish Study,” said Elvidge.
Reaching schools and classrooms in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, highlights of the EPA TRM grant include:
Providing training and workshops to assess crayfish populations and water quality to at least 50 educators,
Engaging at least 1,200 students from predominantly low-income communities in conducting field activities and research made possible through TRM teacher training and associated materials and kits,
Developing new materials such as a field guide for identifying crayfish, and an online mapping tool (ArcGIS) to collect and share data, and
Offering opportunities for teachers and students to present results to other schools and at conferences.
Supporting this effort are scientists and educators from the University of Idaho and UI Extension, the University of Washington, Oregon State University Extension, and the University of Illinois. Other partner organizations supporting the citizen-science activities include the REACH Museum in Richland, WA, Spokane Riverkeeper, and Oregon State Parks.
The program manager for the EE grant is Rick Reynolds, founder of Engaging Every Student. Based out of Oregon, Rick has worked with TRM since 2017. He has been a passionate educator and developer of educational resources for over 25 years, including authoring or co-authoring 18 books and curriculum guides, such as TRM’s Investigating Crayfish + Freshwater Ecosystems. “It is so exciting to see how engaged students are by inquiry into the native and invasive crayfish found in their local watersheds,” said Reynolds. “Crayfish are also an ideal indicator species of water quality, which students can learn how to identify and submit data about that is important for researchers and wildlife managers. By providing students with opportunities to explore the health of animal communities in nearby freshwater ecosystems, we also provide them with powerful motivation to be good stewards of our land and waters.”
The Lake Roosevelt Forum received this EE grant on behalf of TRM and will serve as its fiscal agent and provide administrative oversight.
Early Findings of the Crayfish Study
Lewiston High School’s classes, led by teacher Jamie Morton, discovered a previously unknown invasion of red swamp crayfish in drainage ponds next to the Snake River in Lewiston, Idaho. This discovery was of keen interest to invasive species specialists and researchers. Tissue samples and complete specimens were sent to Dr. Eric Larson at the University of Illinois, who confirmed the outbreak through DNA analysis. Ms. Morton, her students, and experts are now working to see if the outbreak could have spread further and eradicate the problem. A research paper is currently being written about the discovery by Eric Larson, Ph.D, Jim Ekins, Ph.D., Kim Holzer of the Idaho Invasive Species Program, and Jamie Morton.
The suspected source of the Lewiston outbreak is a school that studied the species in class and then released them. If true, it is another example of how critical our education program is for ecosystem health. Other outbreaks have already been linked to schools, such as the devastating outbreak of rusty crayfish currently taking over the John Day River system in Oregon. Researchers from the University of Washington led by Dr. Julian Olden, who also advises our program, have developed models that predict that the rusty crayfish will reach the Columbia River within a couple of years, at which time they can begin to negatively impact much larger areas of the Columbia River watershed that is so important to the Northwest. Discoveries like those of Ms. Morton’s class are critical to stop the invasive species early before they can grow beyond the means of controlling them, as is the case with the rusty crayfish in Oregon today.
We continue to get enthusiastic feedback on the importance of the Crayfish Study from leading experts like Eric Larson, Ph.D. and Christopher Taylor, Ph.D., as well as wildlife managers in WA, OR, and ID, K-12 educators and others who learn about the project.
For more information about participating in TRM, check out www.therivermile.org or email therivermile@gmail.com