2022 People of the Big River Field Class

  We were able to sleep in a little bit longer this Saturday morning and the lovely Monet Becenti cooked us an amazing breakfast that consisted of pancakes, eggs and bacon. After breakfast we paired off to complete tasks like washing dishes, putting stuff away, getting out the lunch food. So, we took turns making our lunches and packing our snacks for the day. This was an exceptionally exciting day because we were going to Two Rivers to swim. The drive down to Two Rivers was beautiful with lots of trees and hills. On our way back we saw a white tale deer. Once we were back at the camp site Monet cooked us dinner, we ate and cleaned up. Then Dr. Shuster passed out our Bio paddles Agar Slides which contained Cottonwood bacteria samples, that has been incubating for 31 hours. I did see some bacterial growth on my slide, which was exciting to see. Finally, we set up the small portable projector and watched a scary movie called Antlers.

  After a pleasant 6 AM wake up call, we quickly showered, ate breakfast and packed lunches so we could make it to the Spokane Tribes, Department of Natural Resources at 8 AM. We were greeted by Forestry Technician and Firefighter George Teters. George is an enrolled member of the Spokane Tribe and a dedicated and knowledgeable worker of Department of Natural Resources for over twenty years. We loaded back into the big passenger van and followed behind George as he led us to a twenty-year clear-cut site. He taught us about native species of trees that grow there and when the trees needed to be cut or kept. He showed us Diameter Breast Plate measurement method when measuring trees, using a measuring tape. We drove further down from the twenty-year-clear-cute site and located the Cottonwood Creek. At this creek we took water samples for Dr. Shusters bacteria class. So, we cleaned described the area where we were collecting the water from. We sterilized our hands, put blue medical glo...

  We arrived at the Spokane Fish Hatchery after 10 AM and met three very nice fish hatchery experts. First, we were greeted by Tim Peone the Fish Hatchery Manager. Then we circled up as a group and were introduced to Water and Fish Project Manager Casey Flanagan, she earned her BS in biology at Eastern Washington University. Then we met the Water Resource Specialist Calvin Fisher, he earned his BS in biology at a University in Arkansas. Tim took time and explained one of his major missions is to see Salmon return to Spokane. Grand Coulee dam has hindered Salmon’s ability to travel as far as they once had. So, this team focuses on checking water quality, creating drought resiliency plans and troubleshooting parasites, diseases and invasive species to ready the water ways and call the salmon home. Later in the afternoon the entire group along with the Casey and Calvin did fish counts using electroshock device they were hoping to see Red Band Trout which was a native species of fish t...

  I arrived at Heritage University at 9 AM. As we were unloading the sleeping bags from Dr. Corbin Shuster’s car it started to rain lightly. We picked out our sleeping bags and beds that looked cozy. Dr. Black arrived around 10 AM with the RV. We loaded the coolers filled with food, camping gear, personal duffle bags, and lab equipment into the vans and RV. We took a break and Dr. Shuster showed us how to test water for bacteria. We set our Bio Paddle Agar Slide into an incubator. It took about 4 hours to get all gear packed and by this time the sun finally came out, temperature was 83 degrees. We departed from HU in a caravan with Dr. Black van in front, truck pulling the RV in the middle and the white van pulling up the rear. There was quite a bit of traffic all the way until we hit Reardan. We arrived at the camp site around 6 PM, unloaded and set up our tents. I personally had a bit of trouble assembling my tent because it looked like a sad Teepee, Agnes and Jaime helped it loo...