People of the Big River 2025

  We are leaving tomorrow! I feel pretty good about getting home. I am learning more about myself taking these trips. I went on Panama and now completed People of the Big River, so I am ready to relax at home in bed. I had a two-week break in between trips but this was not enough time to settle in at home so when I got back out, I still had a majority of my travel stuff together. I downloaded a lot of movies for the final evening here. I don’t anticipate getting much rest even though summer is here since I have an internship I am fully committed to when I get home. Since we get back Saturday then Sunday off and right back to the Huckleberry work on Monday morning and this should be a fun project since I did have time to learn more about the issues and research put into that project. The stuff we did for this trip felt like I was thrown into the deep end and had to roll with what we did. I get it though sometimes education has to be rough to get a full picture of the commitment we a...

  For the first part of the day, we started with microbiology work. We finished some testing we missed throughout the two weeks we have been here. Personally, I missed like 4 tests since we are being rushed around daily. I tried to get them done but failed to, I don’t like missing out on data and not being able to paint a full accurate picture of the research but that’s science sometimes. After doing some of our tests we were taken to the Walla Walla Hatchery where the manager Thomas Tallbull showcased a lot of the technical work, they do use higher tech programs and massive interconnected systems that help the fish develop in treated water and stream water. In one portion of the South Fork of the Walla Walla River is a mixture of treated water with the natural stream water where adult fish will hangout. I liked seeing their lamprey and their fish. It is good to see some tribes out here doing well and working hard to get into the nitty gritty protections of the different Treaties...

  Today was jam packed of education, work exposure, and fun. First we started with the plant nursery and Gail Redberg who is the manager of the facility, then we met with Andrew Wildbill at the CTUIR Agency to hear what the program is about and a brief history lesson of the lands we are invited to work on, then we capped it off helping Solai Le Fay who is a grad student out of Boise State University studying Burrowed Owls and Lindsay Chiono, Habitat Biologist, and finally Mr. Le Fay who was there learning with his daughter Solai just like us rounding out this super interesting afternoon. So, in the morning, we got to the plant nursery and Gail gave a briefing about how their mission revolved around using native plants to aid restoration efforts of streams and their pathways. They help a ton to keep the water cooler by their canopy and their use for bugs who lay their eggs on the plants which in turn help to sustain the fish diet. They will be getting into landscaping too which I ...

Day eleven we were driving. Major props to our drivers for real. They are putting hours on the road; I am thankful they’re so invested in the program we are part of. Thanks to Monet, Corbin, and Jessica! Our one stop was at the Obsidian Flow in Newberry Park where I may or may not have retrieved some of nature's 1300-year-old rocks. Obsidian is such a cool rock, and this place was unique for its development and its explosion over a thousand years ago. I know the ancestors saw this one and likely recovered some material from the source as soon as it cooled down and the gasses cleared up. This mountain is an active shield volcano which surprises me. I have seen the stratovolcanoes but not a shield or cinder. From a distance it does look just like a shield. The top of the obsidian flow was a great view of the perimeter of the shield where you can see the vastness of the miles making up the edges. I enjoyed it a lot, the view was beautiful. I was up at the top getting a brief geology l...

 Today marks day ten and we were tasked with helping to maintain Beaver Dam Analogues (BDA) for the Deschutes National Park. BDA’s are channel wide human made dams that mimic the engineering of the great ol beavers. Which I think is super interesting and since I can see myself managing the wetlands for our tribe back home I could get into this work for sure. Today we got to work with Liz Day (Wildlife Biologist), Alex Ena ( Partner Program Manager), and Christine Meyer (Assistant  Partner Manager) out of the Sisters Ranger District from the Deschutes National Forest and they welcomed us with open arms and work we appreciate. Their recent work has involved constructing dams on Indian Ford Creek to reintroduce beavers in the region to increase the quality of the swamp and the water table. After a short hike into the area, we ended up at BDA 7 which needed some maintenance. For repair our group Joellene, Yoleth, James, and I got to jump into the water to find out if there were ...

  Today was a blast doing survey work with Marlow Fisher who is a Botanist for the Deschutes National Park. She does a ton of conservation work with many plants, but this survey was aimed at population counts for the Pumice Moonwort ( Botrychium Panicola) nicknamed the Bopu which is kind of funny. The weather wasn’t all crazy and hot today and there was a chill breeze making our work much easier. Our total count was over 700! Bopu is a plant that only grows in pumice soils in higher elevations. The site today was 4895 ft, and we found an abundance of plants. Marlow had told us that even on Mt. Baker at 8000+ ft elevation they are growing with much of the same size ranges we saw today, the guess is that the sustained snow and porosity of the soil allows them to thrive. Initially I thought the plant would be stomped out, eaten, or negatively impacted by the manure and urine in the area but this was already explored so I guess not. Although, I have an interest in botany I don’t in...

  Today was another full science day which I love since we did microscope work and tests on our sampling. Dr. Schuster showed us how to do all the lab work while simultaneously getting everything set up and keeping everyone on track so that was nice. I take advantage of using microscopes every time since to me it's super fun to see the microscopic world. Today we ran transported our bacterial growth from the paddles to the plates to multiply the number of bacteria cells we can analyze from each sample site we have visited since the start of the trip. I got to see the first samples for the MacConkey test and the Nutrient-TCC for the Klickitat River. I got a lot of growth so that is interesting to see what the heck is going on in the water. I can’t imagine its anything good. After our work was done, I actually got to collect a small sample of sand from the shallow sandy part of Crane Prairie Lake which was super cool since I was able to identify a rotifer, nematode, and a diatom wh...

  Shout out to Monet the chef and driver! I am very thankful for her and Corbin since they are so experienced on this trip it's nice that we have mentors who are so willing to help and take care of our whole group, as stressful as it is. So, thank you Monet and Corbin! Jessica too since nobody would be here without her. Now, on day seven the three staff literally drove us about 10-hours to Crane Prairie Campgrounds in Bend, Oregon where we are now. Specifically, we are on Mt. Bachelor which is new to me. I haven’t seen or heard of this one, but it is nice and cold. I love camping in this environment since it isn’t dry like back home but isn’t pouring like Yellowstone. It wasn’t my first road trip, so I feel like that was a breeze as a passenger. Usually, I'm the driver for my family so it was nice to just hang out and be on my phone. The Wellpinit region was a good place to be, but the cell service was horrendous. I felt really disconnected from my family but that’s okay they...

     Today is a heavy scientific day. We are currently entering data and this morning we did a group discussion centered around forming our hypothesis relating to the water samples we collected and the sites we visited. I am leaning towards the way agricultural practices and cattle impact the quality of the water we are sampling which are creeks where cattle roam and/or are based through an agriculture field. I used to get super intimidated by the excel work and the data entry, but this year has been super smooth. I have a good feeling our water samples will grow the bacteria's we are looking for. We incubated them on Wednesday and after 48 hours which is today, we did the pure culture isolation. All this is transferring the bacteria over from the incubation oven to the medium we will use to multiply the bacteria hopefully into the millions. These plates got put back into the oven to grow the cells. Then Sunday we will be able to look through the microscope and see what t...

  Today we met with a couple of really cool people from the Wellpinit Fisheries team. Jordyn who has over a decade in fisheries work and Josh from University of Idaho and Wellpinit Fisheries too. They work as field techs right now and they do a lot of electrofishing for conservation of the Redband Trout which is a native species that is endangered in the region. We first measured the depth of the Tshimakain Creek using the lifts installed by last year's crew who took the People of the Big River trip. This year our team is gathering a little bit of information and Jordyn and Josh will be comparing the results of the last two years in hopes to find some improvements to the quality of their wetlands project. Fingers crossed since they said there were subtly signs of improvement in increased flooding. Their goal of preserving the Redband's is admirable work I can get behind since the Yakama Nation does the same type of work- preserving salmon. I can’t wait to really get into the f...

  Today was a travel day. We made our way to Wellpinit, Spokane. We are working with their tribes' fisheries program, but we are based out of the Wellpinit Fairgrounds. I’m not sure what we are going to do but I’m ready. On our way here we stopped at a place called Dry Falls which is a geological wonder of the world. I love seeing old landmarks like this especially from the ice age. It is mind blowing how powerful Earth’s processes and natural events can be. I liked reading about how the Lake Missoula Floods tore through the basalt layers of rock to form wide canyons in not one but two different spots. Considering the hardness of basalt rocks it is amazing how fast that water had to have gone since it was built up behind a massive ice dam that broke, similarly to a bomb, blasting free the water behind it. Seeing these formations today is interesting since there are remnants of the plunge pool at the base of the dry waterfall- where the massive waterfall did fall- and seeing how it ...

  On day 3 we really got into the field work at the Swamp Creek in the Yakama Nation (YN) closed area. It was good because I never considered helping out beavers even though I know they are a keystone species. I guess it never crossed my mind that everyone likes the beaver from trappers (I guess they don’t, but they get em you know?), bears snack on em… seems like scientists or wildlife people really like them and the Yakama Nation has stories that carry significant lessons in their daily lives. So, I really hope this low-tech restoration will help entice the beavers and stimulate the response the YN Fisheries is looking for. Huge thank you to Jenette and David for getting us out there and letting us help by helping out with building the actual dam using the mud, soil, grass wads, logs, and fenceposts. There was a lot of grass and there was a lot of orange-tinted soil which I learned today was a good signature of wetlands. I have an interest in all of the science relating to preser...

  Day two was an official start of the science part of the trip which was collecting water samples and measuring our variables. We went to two spots today which were the King Mountain Area and the Klickitat River. Both were faster but shallow streams, but the Klickitat was much wider and had more healthy indicators with more grass on the banks and the shallow, slower moving water. The King Moutain area had little to no vegetation on its banks but had way larger boulders and was very clear of silt or sand where the Klickitat was very silty. I find it interesting learning the different scientific field equipment.  Klickitat River Additional Site  King Mountain Creek Site 1 On another note, the first night here was super cold. I woke up at 1 am slightly hoping it was 7:30 am. Since I was part of the breakfast duty group I was up early and helped set up the breakfast, drained the coolers, and set up the lunch station. We had sandwiches of course. I’ll let you know when they...

  First impressions of this trip aren’t horrible. Things seem smooth at the moment and the camping is going to be as cold as I was warned about. Too bad I didn’t bring a comforter or a nice pillow but that’s fine   I’ll live. The drive here wasn’t bad but I hear we are doing a 6-hour drive on this trip so I’m not looking forward to that. I am excited for the sampling though. Water sampling is new to me so Im ready for that and the start of our research posters. We had a good dinner too. Burgers and pasta salad the first night plus some chips really is good when you’re camping but honestly what isn’t tasty when you’re outdoors.