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Department of Ecology News Release - September 23, 2004
04-178
OLYMPIA - Stream banks near Hood Canal will turn into outdoor classrooms this school year with the help of a $25,000 grant from the state Department of Ecology (Ecology).
Students, teachers and community volunteers will collect water samples to be tested for pollution from streams that drain into the canal. The test results will be submitted to experts who are studying the canal's water quality problems.
At the same time, students and volunteers will learn valuable lessons about the environment and water pollution, while also helping the canal.
"Studies show that students' enthusiasm, interest and learning are greatly enhanced when they move outdoors into the real world of the natural environment beyond classroom text books," said Rhonda Hunter, an environmental education specialist for Ecology. "Plus, this help from students and volunteers is inexpensive and gives real benefits to the watershed."
Besides monitoring, the project includes teacher and volunteer training, development of a "Neighbors of Hood Canal" Web site, and a Hood Canal Youth Summit that will be held in the spring of 2005. At the summit, students and experts will convene to understand the results of the monitoring findings.
The Hood Canal Watershed Education Network is leading the project, in coordination with state natural resource agencies.
Additional funding is anticipated from Americorps, scientists, teachers, the Puget Sound Action Team, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State University Cooperative Extension, the Hood Canal Watershed Environmental Network partners and volunteers, amounting to $81,000.
Hood Canal suffers from low oxygen levels and is experiencing "dead zones" that trigger fish kills and shellfish deaths. Experts believe the canal's low oxygen may be caused, in part, by polluted runoff from human activities around the canal.
To learn more about Hood Canal's water quality problems, log onto the Puget Sound Action Team's Web site at http://www.psat.wa.gov/Programs/hood_canal.htm.
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Contacts: Sandy Howard, Dept. of Ecology public information manager, 360-407-6239; Karen Lippy, Hood Canal Watershed Education Network, 360-275-0846
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
