Thanks to a grant from REI, and our partnership with Anchorage Waterways Council, Alaska Geographic and the Chugach Children’s Forest are able to teach youth in Anchorage about healthy creeks and streams. Through field trips and school outings, youth are able to participate in testing for dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, and look through water to find macroinvertebates – a sign of a healthy water ecosystem! Recently, we have explored and tested creeks with students from Mears Middle School and from Ursa Major Elementary School on the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. We have also explored the new Campbell Creek Estuary Natural Area with students from Mears Middle School. Students from Mears rotated around various stations in the new Natural Area – helping to lay gravel, observing and documenting the plant diversity in the forest and meadow ecosystems, testing water, surveying wildlife, and much more!
