Educational Opportunities

Promoting understanding, awareness, and education of watersheds is an important part of the Grays Harbor College Model Watershed Project. The project site encompass trails, wetlands, forest habitat, stream, lake, and a hatchery that provide unique educational resources for Grays Harbor College students. Through the 'Washington, Wetlands, and Water Quality Curriculum Resource Guide', hatchery tours, presentations, on-site programs, and interpretive trails the project provides educational outreach to Grays Harbor & Pacific County school districts, community members, and out-of-town visitors.

Partnerships with college faculty, area schools, industry, and local organizations create learning opportunities. Faculty use the Alder Creek, Lake Swano, and hatchery for water quality and salmon habitat study. The trails provide a hands-on showcase for faculty to teach about geology, botany, and biology, as well as a recreational walking area for physical education students.

Watershed restoration projects were completed by students participating in the Jobs for the Environment program with Columbia Pacific Resource, Conservation, and Development. Students learned about restoration practices and instituted them on sensitive areas around Lake Swano and Alder Creek. GHC Natural Resources students conducted a watershed analysis as part of their curriculum (see photo above) and formally presented their findings to faculty, staff and industry visitors. A week of watershed education for middle school students, called Project S.W.I.S.H (Students, Watersheds, Invertebrates, Streams & Habitats), was sponsored by the Model Watershed Project and Friends of Grays Harbor (FOGH). Three days of fifth grade field trips to logging sites and the Model Watershed Project were part of the Natural Resource Community Tours, a partnership with the Washington Contract Loggers Association.

Nearly two miles of developed "barrier free" nature trails traverse the MWP site for maximum public access and use. The one mile loop around Lake Swano features fourteen interpretive signs that include information about watersheds, natural history, and poems by retired GHC Humanities Instructor, Harold 'Jim' Enrico. The signs are based on the theme, "Now, A Thousand Years From Now, A Healing Watershed" partially taken from the title of one of Enrico's books. Another eight of a mile loop that begins by the hatchery has been dedicated to Louis Messmer, 45 year veteran GHC faculty member, who teaches botany at the college. The trail is called "Lou's Loop Botany Trail." There are twelve numbered stops that correspond to a numbered pamphlet that highlights the botanical description and ethnographical information of each plant.

TOURS:

Lou's Loop Botany Trail