We found initially that use of this equipment was surprisingly limited. Many teachers were either unaware of what was available or had no idea where it was stored even though equipment lists and locations were circulated among the teachers. Held on a teacher in-service day, all teachers were invited to the middles school cafeteria where agency personnel demonstrated the equipment and described its uses. Each Fall, teachers and students help State Fisheries Biologists by electroshocking rainbow trout and whitefish out of the major irrigation canal in the Crooked River drainage and placing them back in the river after irrigation season. Several thousand fish are annually saved in this effort.
Students learn valuable fisheries management techniques and conservation ethics.
A new project for 1996 involves restoration of black cottonwood trees in the watershed. This once widespread riparian tree species is almost extirpated in many parts of Central Oregon. The Forest Service and BLM are currently propagating cuttings from many remnant clones on public land in two seed orchards as a means of saving the historic genetic material. This year Silviculturists and Ecologists from the Forest Service will give several lectures on the importance and management of black cottonwood to the High School Horticulture class. Following that, students from the class will assist USFS and BLM personnel in taking cuttings from the seedbed, preparing cages to protect plantings and planting the cuttings out in floodplains on public land.