Salmon Watch!

This last Friday Dani & I taught some kids about water quality, and in the process learned a lot ourselves. Sounds pretty cheesy I know, but up until Friday afternoon I was under the impression that nearly all teenagers, especially in a classroom setting, are devil's spawn. This impression came from two sources: 1. I was once myself devil's spawn, particularly toward substitute teachers, and I remember how much I would push the envelope of mischief on field trips, and 2. My last experience trying to control the chaos I once fostered in a classroom was at an alternative school in Macomb, IL. This experience left me with the firm belief that the vast minority of teenagers are decent people, and even though most grow up and become okay adults, during the teen years they should not be trusted. Basically: let your guard down and one of them will shank you.

Naturally, my expectation of a of leading eighth-graders into the woods was to end up floating face down in the river with them throwing rocks at my bloated corpse. But, here I am without scars from stone or shiv and a new feeling that teens are not all that bad.

The program that we participated in was "Salmon Watch!" which is put on by a client of mine, that describes their efforts as conservation 2.0. This idea takes the best parts of conservation: quick, effective action toward actually conserving and does away with much of the b-s surrounding conservation: particularly bureaucratic inaction and politically motivated finger-pointing. Rather, they focus on improving water quality by working with people that have an interest in water (really all of us) like farmers, fishermen and power companies. The vast majority of their funding comes from private contributions and volunteer's time. The piece that we were working on was educating the next generation on the importance of the clean water, not just for the sake of salmon, but for the sake of jobs, power and quality of life.

So besides learning a lot about the intricacies of ecosystems, the strange behaviors (and smells) of eighth-graders and that they are not all evil, we got to hang out on the Salmon River on a beautiful fall day!