osprey94's Blog

field trip for the TEACHER!
May 24, 2007 | 7:36 PM PST
Tags: camas , oregon spotted frog , cinquefoil , bunchgrass , balsam root , blue-eyed grass

Today, it was my turn to go on a field trip all for ME! My students and I are involved in a project funded by the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium that allows us to take field trips that revolve around improving the health of the Chehalis River (the river our watershed drains to). So, anyhoo, they organize a teacher's "retreat" at the end of the school year so we participating teachers can get together to reflect on this year and plan for next. This time, we went to two nature preserve areas in our watershed. One was a protected prairie area (very rare) where we learned about native plants from these prairies. It was so fascinating. We had gorgeous weather too. So, here is what I learned:

I've heard about the native camas, an important food source for the Native Americans

Also, there's balsam root, my fave...

these smell like a reeses peanut butter cup!

Then, there's blue-eyed grass...look upon the loveliness...

Here's my friend, cinquefoil. Some say the leaves might resemble another type of plant that might be "mood-altering"...I don't know anything about that, though...

Here's the lupine...one of my faves...

And, here's bunchgrass. It's blue-green  and beautiful...

 

Now, if I could just turn part of our two acres into meadow like this, I'd be a happy girl.

The other preserve was interesting, too. It was an area formerly referred to as "Rainbow Valley". Apparently, many hippies used to live in this area in old buses and campers and there was a lot of drug use and frolicking. Now, the Nature Conservancy owns the land, and have renamed it with an historically correct name, and cleaned it all out. They're now replanting it with native plants and creating shallow pools that are dry 3 months out of the year (the perfect environment for these guys):

The Oregon spotted frog (threatened)

herpetologynorthwest.
org/.../

and the WRONG habitat for this guy:

the BULL FROG, our introduced menace!

pirate.shu.edu/~cookandr/F
rog%20Home%20Page.html All other pics are from enature.com I am definately planting my heirloom tomatoes tomorrow. The weather has REALLY warmed up!

Oh, also, at the retreat today, I started to get some contacts for vermicomposting our kids' leftovers from lunch and getting a greenhouse. Another teacher at the retreat got her district to buy her a greenhouse and then every mother's day, her kids sell the plants they grew to pay for their supplies for the next year! She said she can even get potting soil for free a lot. I think I could pull that together. I might have the kids write to the district to ask for a greenhouse. Harder to turn down a kid, I betcha'!

Tomorrow is Friday. Mommy likey!