By Julia Keane
River Wranglers (RW), a youth-oriented watershed education organization based in Carson City, has just wrapped up its fall season.
RW’s Education and Outreach Coordinator Julia Keane led students through different programs that focus specifically on the Carson River Watershed.
Keane came on board in October of 2017 as an AmeriCorps Member from the Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership (SNAP).
SNAP places members at host organizations across the Sierra Nevada region for an 11-month term of service.
Keane works half time at River Wranglers in Carson City and half time at Alpine Watershed Group in Woodfords, CA. Her role as Education and Outreach Coordinator is to facilitate the hands-on programs that River Wranglers offers to local schools.
These include Conserve Carson River Work Days, Trout in the Classroom, and other environmentally focused in-class presentations.
This past season, RW held eight Conserve Carson River Work Days for schools in Douglas, Lyon, and Carson City counties. These Work Days allow students to discover their own relationship with the Carson River.
Students teach each other as they increase awareness of relevant environmental issues.
River Wranglers trains high school students to lead different stations that vary on topics and skill sets. These stations, placed along the river, include pollution, the water cycle, predator and prey relationships, watershed mapping, water quality testing, flood management, and restoration.
On the day of the field trip, the high school students transform into the role of a teacher as they lead groups of fourth grade students.
Students are joined by professionals from across the watershed, such as members of the Dayton Valley Conservation District, Nevada Department of Environmental Protection, State Parks, Carson Water Subconservancy District, and more.
These connections between older and younger students as well as experts are invaluable to the experiential education that the outdoor classroom provides.
Keane also supported Trout in the Classroom for Nevada schools. Trout in the Classroom is a nationwide program where students raise sterile rainbow trout in their classroom aquarium and then release them into different parts of the Carson River.
As the fish transform through their life cycle, students learn about key components for survival.
This year, Keane supplemented their education with hands-on games and activities specific to aquatic environments.
For example, Carson Montessori students played a game where they pretended to be fish competing for resources while dealing with environmental stressors. Other activities include Trout Bingo, Gyotaku fish printing, book readings about salmon migration, and an experiment to see how plastics affect different animals in the water column.
As the Fall season comes to an end, River Wranglers is looking forward to getting back out on the river. Spring season will include more Conserve Carson River Work Days, Agriculture in the Classroom presentations, outreach events, and flood awareness activities.
If you are an educator and are interested in having River Wranglers come into your classroom, please contact Julia Keane at julia.ed@riverwranglers.org.
