The Nisqually River Education Project offers many unique field experiences for students throughout the school year. All of these experiences are free, including bus transportation! To get your students involved in any of these fun and educational trips, contact our Program Director Davy Clark at davy@nisquallyriver.org or (360) 438-8715 ext. 2153.
Water Quality Monitoring and Student GREEN Congress
The Nisqually River Education Project can provide your classroom with the training, supplies and bus funding for two trips (mid-October and mid-February) to a local waterway to conduct a suite of chemical and physical tests of the water. Students will use their findings to determine if the waterway could support salmon. In March, you can send a handful of student delegates to our annual GREEN Congress to report their findings to their peers at Evergreen’s campus during a day of workshops and fun!
Tree Planting
Each year, the Nisqually River Education Project partners with the Nisqually Land Trust to get students out to plant trees along the Nisqually River and its tributaries. These field trips are a great way to get kids active and learning outside, and making a direct impact on wildlife habitat.
Salmon Tossing
Our salmon carcass tossing trips play an important role in moving those marine derived nutrients to the forest. When hatchery salmon return from the ocean they are harvested for eggs and milt to start a new generation of salmon. It’s our task to take the carcass of the harvested salmon and return it to historic nesting grounds! This transports all those essential nutrients that the salmon absorb while out at sea to the rivers where the next generation grows!
Nearshore Trips
Nearshore Field Trips occur every spring and early summer at the Nisqually Reach Nature Center. The Nisqually Estuary is one of the finest estuaries in Puget Sound and a great place to do some hands-on scientific surveys! Trip activities include crab surveys, macroinvertebrate surveys, shellfish farm tours, estuary experiments and stormwater runoff experiments.
Eye on Nature
Eye on Nature trips occur in the spring and summer. Students visit Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge for two outdoor activities on the Refuge trail system: ethnobotany walks and nature mapping. During the ethnobotany walk, students learn about about the traditional cultural and medicinal uses of native plants. During the Nature Mapping activity, students record the animals they see along the trail. This data is later entered into the eBird database.
No Child Left Inside
No Child Left Inside is a grant that has allowed the Nisqually River Education Project to bring youth from Wa He Lut Indian School and the Nisqually Tribe’s Youth Wellness Program on field trips for recreational activities and environmental educational programming. From snowshoeing on Mount Rainier to hiking to Little Mashel Falls in Pack Forest, the NREP has joined with the Nisqually Indian Tribe to bring youth on exciting field trips while they learn more about environmental education and the environments that they live in.
NTPS 4th Grade Trips
The NTPS 4th grade STEM trips titled Salmon, Cedar, Canoe: Stewards of the Ecosystem take place in the early spring at sxʷ daʔ dəb, the Nisqually Tribal Cultural Center and Gardens. These trips offer students an opportunity to learn about the Native history of the Nisqually Delta while participating in workshops having to do with culture, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and salmon conservation. Past workshops have included the Salmon: Smell Your Way Home Game, Cedar Weaving, Canoe and Tribal Stories, Salmon Dissection, Streambug Exploration, and Service Learning in the Blueberry Patch.