Submitted by South Sound GREEN
On March 23, hundreds of fourth through eighth grade students from multiple South Puget Sound watersheds will gather at The Evergreen State College for the 30th Annual Student GREEN Congress. This will be the first in-person Congress since 2019, and the Congress co-creators and attendees are looking forward to being back on The Evergreen State College campus for the event. The student delegates have been preparing for Congress by collecting water quality data from local watersheds throughout the fall and winter, and will join together at Congress to share their data with each other and reflect on the stewardship of their watersheds.
The watersheds represented at this year’s Student GREEN Congress include the Nisqually, Deschutes, Budd Inlet, Henderson, and Chehalis Basin watersheds. This is the first year that the network of Student GREEN Congress testing sites includes locations in the Chehalis Basin watershed. In previous years, the Chehalis Basin watershed has held its own dedicated Congress, and is now combining with Student GREEN Congress as an exciting expansion of both programs.
Student emcees will conduct an introduction to Student GREEN Congress, followed by a keynote presentation led by Luz Gaxiola, local performer and member of String and Shadow and the Olympia Family Theater. Luz and a group of other multidisciplinary performance artists have created an original environmentally-focused comedy and puppet routine specifically for Student GREEN Congress. After the morning ceremonies, students will disperse for the State of the Rivers Sessions. During these sessions, student delegates present the water quality data that they collected over the past few months, and compare that data to the preferred water quality parameters for salmon. The delegates will then work together to develop action plans to improve the water quality within their home watersheds.
In the afternoon, representatives from community partners including the City of Lacey, Long Live the Kings, Nisqually Stream Stewards, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Nisqually Indian Tribe, Nisqually Community Garden, Trout Unlimited, Oly Women on the Fly, Puget Sound Estuarium, Thurston County Solid Waste, Surfrider Foundation, Nisqually Reach Nature Center, Wolf Haven International, AmeriCorps, Eco WoodWorks, Pacific Shellfish Institute, Tahoma Audubon Society, Black Hills Audubon Society, Washington Department of Natural Resources, SR3, Great Peninsula Conservancy, Nisqually River Education Project, Pacific Education Institute, and The Evergreen State College will conduct hands-on educational workshops for students. Each workshop will focus on a different environmental science topic relevant to the students’ local watersheds, such as understanding salmon life cycles and identifying native bird species.
Student GREEN Congress is made possible each year through collaboration between South Sound GREEN (Global Rivers Environmental Education Network), the Nisqually River Education Project, and the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium.
South Sound GREEN is a watershed education program in Thurston County that educates, empowers and connects about 50 classrooms and 1,200 students in watershed studies annually. Through this program, participants engage in science and engineering practices related to water quality in the South Sound. For more information, visit the South Sound GREEN website.
Since 1999, the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium has raised the awareness of teachers and students about water quality issues in the Chehalis basin. Students are given the opportunity to learn about the environment and are provided with hands-on experience in water quality monitoring, riparian restoration, and other projects that help protect and improve water quality. For more information, visit the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium website.
The Nisqually River Project (NREP) is a watershed education program housed by the Nisqually River Foundation. NREP implements key elements of the Nisqually Watershed Stewardship Plan, providing students service learning projects that link Washington State learning goals and standards with local environmental issues, inspiring stewardship of the Nisqually Watershed and the world. For more information, visit the Nisqually River Project website.
