Water Monitoring with SKC and gida Student Scientists

Watershed Education Network recently joined Salish Kootenai College hydrology professor Tony Berthelote in welcoming students from Minnesota's Gida-Manoomin camp to Montana. Students from the camp, whose projects include helping with restoration of native wild rice to lakes on the Fond du Lac Reservation in Minnesota, took a core sample from Lake Josephine (GNP) with scientists from the LacCore program. The students examined sediments deposited in Josephine from the eruption of Mount Mazama (what is now Crater Lake, OR) in 5700 B.C. After touring the Going To the Sun road, WEN and gida returned to the Flathead Reservation to perform water monitoring tests at Mission Falls in the Mission Mountains. The falls were rushing from snow melt water, and the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day for hands-on exploration of the stream. Students learned how to test velocity, PH and dissolved oxygen content, and counted and identified macroinvertebrates, while their instructors participated in a GLOBE training session. Here are some pictures from the trip: