COHO SALMON & STEELHEAD TROUT
Wilderness Way has activities for every grade level that involves math,
science, art, and poetry. WW recently supplemented Montessori’s Native
American studies and will provide a Steelhead-in-the-Classroom program in
the spring. Students will observe, monitor and keep an elementary journal.
Middle School will have a similar program at a significantly more advanced
science level, including use of a video-flex. They will also create a film
documentary beginning with the egg pick-up at the hatchery. We have winter
field trips to the Larsen Preserve, San Geronimo Creek, and Taylor Park to
observe coho salmon spawning and sometimes sight a stray chum or chinook.
We use the San Geronimo Valley watershed model to better understand our
interrelationship with our environment.
NATIVE AMERICANS
Wilderness Way has activities for grade levels K - 8. These are hands on
projects that help children understand how Native people lived and what we
can learn today from the harmonious way they coexisted with nature. Our plan
is to create a village model, similar to those at Kule Loklo and
Chawsee and then build a real model village in or near the Larsen Preserve
where skills, games, dances, and stories can be taught and enjoyed.
NEW! NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE ELECTIVE
Wilderness Way staff’s consistent use of the Native American flute on field
trips, calling the wild coho salmon back to their home stream in the fall
and sending them on a safe journey in the spring has resulted in a popular
electives class for Middle School students. (see Photo Gallery) Each
student puts together and enhances their own flute and flute case. Classes
are held on the land. Paul and his wife Tina teach the class and are
assisted this year with high school intern, Cullen Gray.
NEW! ENVIRONMENTAL LIVING PROGRAM
Wilderness Way has been invited to partner with Tomales Bay State Park in
maintaining and enhancing the well known Environmental Living Program
inspired and developed by retired ranger Carlos Porrata. This program
provides teachers and volunteers with the tools to teach children about
Native American traditional culture. It can be experienced only by entering
a lottery and participating in a two day teacher training workshop in
September. Wilderness Way brought many articles and described their use in
their program. Wilderness Way will teach these skills to the Montessori
4th/5th graders and then, in the spring, simulate that life in a two day
overnight experience on Indian Beach at the park.
NATIVE WILDLIFE AND PLANTS
Wilderness Way uses the Marietta Larsen Memorial Preserve as a dynamic
out-door lab. We identify and study plants, birds, fish, and animals. We
teach children how to use their eyes and ears differently than they do in
the classroom. Our outdoor studies become science and frequently art and
poetry projects. We teach survival techniques.
MARIETTA LARSEN MEMORIAL PRESERVE
Wilderness Way continues to restore and maintain the Preserve’s trails,
creeks, riparian habitat and regularly cut back poison oak. We have built a
tracking box in a trail which allows the children to make plaster casts and
learn to read the story the wildlife tracks tell. WW is creating a Field
Guide for the Preserve, collecting work done by teachers and environmental
groups, and initiating the studies needed to create a Guide that will
include information about native plants and their uses, birds, salmon and
steelhead trout and other wildlife. Grant funds from NOAA has allowed
Wilderness Way to do additional work with Middle School math students to
measure speed and volume of Larsen Creek and interpreting and making
predictions from the results.
FILM MAKING
Wilderness Way has made several films documenting environmental projects in
the classroom and in the community. Students not only assist but are
creating their own environmental films. As part of their Community Out
Reach program, Wilderness Way is also documenting Valley elders telling
their stories of living in the Valley.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Wilderness Way sponsors Community Service projects with Lagunitas Middle
School students and Sir Francis Drake High School students that includes
plant care and habitat restoration, creek cleanup, Salmon crossing sign
cleanup and repair, releasing Chinook at the Romberg Center and assisting a
the Salmon Run, a benefit for Wilderness Way programs. Students also help
with preparing supplies for craft projects, cleaning incubators, folding
instruction sheets, etc.
RESOURCES
Wilderness Way has an exceptional library and collection of native artifacts
it uses in its instructional programs.
NOAA GRANT UPDATE
School Programs and Community Out Reach
Wilderness Way recently received second year grant funding for the 2007-08
school year from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to
continue existing salmonid and watershed programs and projects in the
Lagunitas School District, create a comprehensive K-8 program, expand
partnerships to benefit school and community and provide staff development
opportunities as well as supplies and equipment.
LAGUNITAS SCHOOL DISTRICT PROGRAMS
Wilderness Way has been teaching about coho salmon, steelhead trout and the
Valley’s watershed in the Lagunitas School District since 1999. Every year
Wishing Poles are made to Call Back the Salmon -- and sure enough the salmon
come back year after year.
2007-2008
Wilderness Way received second year funding from NOAA to continue the
program described in the 2006-07 year below.
2006-2007
This school year, due to the generosity of a grant from NOAA, WW was not
only able to continue its existing program of science, art and literary
activities, outdoor adventures, and field trips but, in cooperation with
school district teachers, completed a fall program in the Montessori
and Waldorf programs -- the first steps toward creating an articulated
curriculum about salmonids and the Valley watershed at each grade level from
K to 8th grade.
Students walked Larsen Creek in the Preserve in September while it was dry
and got a pretend ‘fish feel” of how water impacts the creek and riparian
areas. Together we walked through the tunnel that merges with San Geronimo
Creek and imagined being a salmon struggling to get up a terribly designed
culvert to get back to the site where it was born. We made discoveries about
native plants (Do you know why poison oak is called “The Love Bush?) and
native birds and spotted a few nonresidents in this special forest.
We watched the extraordinary WW film Couching Heron, Jumping Salmon that
gave the students the opportunity to see local salmon jumping the stepped
pools at the Inkwells; the display of male and female behavior and their
last acts in the spawning process. We took this information and utilized it
in appropriate grade level activities. Kindergartners, learned to use their
eyes and ears differently in the forest and next to the creek. First graders
practice stalking skills and imitated birds. Second graders studied the
tracking box and learned to tell the stories tracks tell and identify what
animals come and when and why. Third graders made a unique accordion book of
he salmon life cycle and learned not only about where salmon are born but
where they live the greatest part of their life before returning home to
spawn and die. All students got to see the watershed
model of the San Geronimo Valley and find where they lived but it was the
5th graders who ran the Thorner ridge and experienced the watershed by
running the ridge and searching and finding the headwaters of Larsen Creek.
(This will give readers a sense of the fall program)
And while the primary grades in Montessori and Waldorf were having these
experiences WW was teaching a Middle School Elective - Secret Salmon Sites.
WW divided the class in teams - each with a camcorder. Following basic
instruction they were given the assignment to film different aspects of the
life and habitat of a wild coho salmon. The raw footage is unique --
humorous, serious, educational -- and very diverse. The edited film will be shown to the Middle School student
body and at Open House.
OUT REACH 2007-08
Marin County Fair - Displayed student projects in the Aquatics Themes
Pavilion. WW’s film Crouching Heron, - Jumping Salmon was reedited,
narrated and selected for viewing at the Ocean and Bay Film Festival at the
Fair.
Chinook Kiss - WW provided an exhibit, activities and ceremony for children
and adults to participate in the release of 10,000 chinook salmon into
Richardson Bay. They joined other partners which included Tiburon Salmon
Institute, Casa Grande High School, Girl Scouts, Trout Unlimited.
Salmon Run - A 100 yard dash and 5K for all ages was held under the redwoods
along Lagunitas Creek, home to wild coho salmon, in Samuel P. Taylor Park.
An organic pancake breakfast and hand made awards were provided with
proceeds to benefit WW programs.
Second Annual Environmental Art Show - WW joined partners San Geronimo
Valley Community Center, Valley Artists Advisory Committee and Steward of
the Mighty Oak to honor significant oaks of the San Geronimo Valley and
beyond, with an exhibition, performance and educational presentation by 37
artists, musicians, poets, educators and naturalists
OUT REACH 2006-07
First Annual Environmental Art Show - WW honored 13 San Geronimo Valley
artists who make their living by doing art work inspired by the Valley
environment. the Art Show was the center piece of the first staff
development session. Students took tours of the show with a WW docent.
Film Festival - Documentaries of interviews of two elders telling about
their life in the Valley as well as a film of a life long resident
describing his environmental adventures over the years.
Park St. Bridge - WW coordinated with the County of Marin and helped
students and adults from the community install native plants at the new
arched culvert in Woodacre. This project was documented in the WW film,
“Park St. Bridge.”
YouthGive - WW joined other select non-profits that were featured in the
Inaugural Edition of YouthGive's Guide to Giving in Marin..
Cub Scouts - Provided Cub Pack #1 from Mill Valley with a salmonid program
that included, a film, Calling Back the Salmon with wishing poles, visiting
the Inkwells , visiting the fish ladder at Roys Pools and the new fish
friendly culvert at Woodacre and finishing with a tour to see spawning
salmon in Lagunitas Creek.
Wishing Poles at the Inkwells - Placed 100 wishing poles made by students of
the Lagunitas School District to Call Back the Salmon. Also available on
site was a brochure with instructions as to how to make a wishing pole and
information about wild coho salmon.
Salmon Tours at Lagunitas Creek near the Inkwells - Although the rains were
few and far between the staff of WW spent four days each week during
December and early January giving docent tours to locals and tourists alike
along the trail between the Inkwells and the Peters Dam spillway.
County of Marin Kid’s Day at the annual 4th of July County Fair. Project:
WW provided Native American Indian games, pump drills and craft supplies to
create shell/bead necklaces. Displayed watershed model of the San Geronimo
Valley and film documentary of Lagunitas School students building the model.
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WILDERNESS WAY
Past Programs
MONTESSORI PROGRAM
In 2006 the Montessori PTA requested participation in the WW program.
Instructors followed up with requests for experiences as part of their
Native American studies program in the fall and the
Steelhead-in-the-Classroom program in the spring.
• All four classes visited the WW center and learned native American
games, the use of the pump drill, and created a bead necklace. (See above).
5th graders used the extensive WW library to study specific California
tribes.
• 3/4th graders participated in the Steelhead-in-the-Classroom program for
9 weeks. Each child made aquarium observations and created a “scientific”
journal to record their notes and sketches. They also did scientific
drawings and supplemented their Journal with creative drawings of steelhead.
The culmination of the program was returning the fry to their natal stream
-- a field trip to Salmon Creek in Sonoma County. Each child received an
award certificate for their participation.
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROGRAM
• For the 5th year both 7th grade classes participated in the advanced level
of the unique Steelhead-in-the-Classroom program. Their exceptional
“scientific” journals emphasized anatomy and physiology. A student film crew
documented and participated in editing the film which included egg pickup,
classroom lectures and journal studies, fry release at Salmon Creek, an art
mobile project and displays at the Middle School Open House. A student music
crew created and played the music for the sound track.
• 6th graders began the documentation and study of the Woodacre Creek day
lighting project to be implemented in cooperation with the County of Marin
during the summer and fall. They are in process of documenting the “before”
film shoot of the area and developing wording for a sign for this historic
project. (See grants below).
• WW worked with the 7th grade teacher to provide art mobiles and the
student film documentary as part of the Open House exhibit.
• Community Service: 8th graders cleaned and repaired salmon crossing
signs in Taylor State Park that had been made by students in 2003.
• Elective: Secret Salmon Sites. This popular elective took students to
unique areas throughout the Valley.
OPEN CLASSROOM PROGRAM
The instructors in the 3/4 and 5/6th grades Open Classroom program requested
activities and experiences related to Native American studies . These
activities included:
• Native games: Pin and hoop (5 levels); pin and ring; staves, dice and
acorn tops. Most children became quite skilled. Some made a few games at
school or at home.
• Pump drill: Each child learned how to use the native pump drill and
learned to drill holes in wood and shells to create other objects.
• Cordage: Each child learned how to make two ply cordage. They created
cordage of their shell/clay bead necklace. 5th and 6th graders make 2 to 8
ply cordage charts.
• Tracking: Children went to the Larsen Preserve to clean and repair the
tracking box. This was used to observe and identify wildlife tracks and
learn the stories tracks tell.
• Native Plants: We collected and identified native plants from the San
Geronimo Valley and learned the Miwok name and the use of the plant by
native people. We put the plant specimens in old shoes, labeled them and
created a Native Shoe Garden.
• Sweat Lodge: Children made scale models (2) of a native sweat lodge. WW
invited a native elder to direct us in building a full-size native sweat in
the traditional way which was used by 5/6th graders and the 40 children
visiting from France.
• Children did drawings of the games, pump drills and sweat lodge which
were included in a book given to the French children.
OTHER
• WW participated in the Community Center sponsored LSD Art Show with
drawings, mobiles, salmon crossing signs, booklets and fish journal.
• WW had a booth in the BAEER fair and was invited to do a teacher’s
workshop on building a watershed model. 17 teachers attended.
• WW was commissioned to build Native American games to be used for display
at the Grace Hudson museum in Ukiah.
• WW is collaborating with the CC garden/nutrition instructor on planning
future projects of mutual interest and of benefit to the school children and
community.
• WW is seeking ways to reach the broader Valley community with the WW
program.
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Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats
