September
30th-October 4th marked the first WildLink expedition for
the 200-2003 school year. Students from Woodlake and Reedley
High Schools participated in our first adventure for the
WildLink program into Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks.
The trip was led by John Lockhart of the Sequoia Natural
History Association and Jocelyn Gretz of WildLink. Robert
Garcia of the Central California Consortium was there to
support us and provide his input and encouragement.
Our week started off
with a talk from Annie Esperanza, an air quality specialist
at the Park. Julie talked to us about how air pollution
is formed and how ozone is destroyed. She then showed us
the scientific equipment that they use to monitor the air
quality every day in the park. We ended the discussion brainstorming
ideas of how we can each clean up our act and reduce our
input of pollutants into the air.
In additon to our air quality talk,
the students learned about giant sequoia fire ecology, and
learned a bit about tree identification along the trail
in our hike into Clover Creek. From reading my journal and
the students' journals, you can get a feel for what we went
through -- it snowed quite heavily on our way into Clover
Creek, so we decided to head down to a lower elevation,
Ladybug Camp, to do our GLOBE water sampling the next few
days.
We sampled the Kaweah River near
Camp Ladybug in the southern park of Seqoia National Park.
We used both palm pilot technology as well as hand held
sensors to determine water pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen,
and conductivity. The data from our sampling will be entered
on the GLOBE web site. The students also sampled the invertebrates
of the river, and determined that the presence of sensitive
species ment that this portion of the river was clean.
All in all, a great trip -- we got
to experience and learn about two different ecosystems in
Sequoia National Park. Congratulations go out to all of
the students who kept positive attitudes throughout the
trip!
