Gorge Ecology Institute - Get Involved!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Space is limited . . .
REGISTER ONLINE TODAY AT: http://www.hrcommunityed.org
For more information, please contact:
Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute
203 2^nd St. Hood River, OR 97031
(541)-387-2274
or
programs@gorgeecology.org

Birding for Beginners
Ever wanted to know more about the birds in your backyard? Get started with this introductory birding class for adults and families. Learn tips and tricks to identifying birds and much more.

Place: TBD
Date: Thursday, May 1
Time: 6:00 - 8:30pm
Fee: $10.00

Backpacking Basics
This class is for anyone who wants to learn the basics of backpacking: what kind of gear to bring, how to pack a backpack, planning meals, what to wear, Leave No Trace principles, and backcountry safety.

Place: Coe Primary Building
Date: Saturday, May 24
Time: 1:00 pm
Fee: $10.00

Down the River: An Adventurous Introduction to River Ecology of the Upper Klickitat River
Join CGEI and Zoller’s Outdoor Odysseys for a full day of class III-IV white-water rafting down the Upper Klickitat River while learning hands-on about river ecology. For more info on whitewater rafting, visit www.zooraft.com. Must be in good physical shape and age 18 or older.

Place: Meet in BZ Corner, WA
Date: Saturday, June 7th
Time: 9:00am-3:30pm
Fee: $95.00/person

The Gorge Rocks Tour
Join the naturalists at Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute for a geology tour of the Columbia River Gorge. We'll explore our beautiful home and learn some stories from the land. Family friendly.

Place: TBA
Date: Saturday, June 28
Time: TBA
Fee: $25.00

Muir Trek
In the spirit of John Muir, we will spend most of the day exploring a delightful natural area without the benefit of trails, maps, cameras, books, any extraneous items except extra clothes and water.

Place: Lyle, Washington
Date: Saturday, July 12
Time: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Fee: $15.00

Discovery Day Camp: Exploring Nature
Calling 3^rd and 4^th grade explorers! Hike around the Discovery Center’s lands, explore pond ecosystems, learn about the geology of the area, and create art from nature!

Place: Gorge Discovery Center
Date: July 14 – July 17
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Fee: $95/student

Wilderness Ecology Backpacking Adventure
Get ready to learn about backcountry cooking, teamwork, Leave No Trace principles and map and compass skills as we go hiking, and explore in the pristine Pacific Northwest wilderness. We will also conduct ecological stewardship and research activities. Ages 15-18.

Place: TBA
Date: August 11-14
Fee: $325.00

CGEI IN THE NEWS !

Keeping Secrets
A program dedicated to education and stewardship hopes to continue symbiotic relationships with community

By ESTHER SMITH
Hood River News staff writer
February 16, 2005

The imagination of a child combined with a hunger for learning is fertile soil, and the Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute’s SECRETS program sows seeds of understanding that take root and thrive for a lifetime.

SECRETS is an acronym for the concepts the program teaches: Sense of Wonder, Ecosystems, Cycles, Relationships, Energy Flow, Time=Change, and Stewardship. Julie Burton, a CGEI board member and secondary level science teacher, has been volunteering with the Institute for about a year. She holds a masters degree in educational psychology and ecology, and an undergrad degree in microbiology, and she has high praise for the SECRETS program.

“This is real science; this is real quality,” she says. “I am interested in programs that have actual science, and I’m so impressed with this. There just isn’t anything like this.”
The 10-week life-science program consists of eight classroom lessons, a Family Night, and a daylong field trip.

Upper elementary school children learn about local ecosystems by “becoming” one of the many organisms in that system, such as lichen, lupine, magpie, woodpecker or grizzly, and learning each one’s place in that system. AmeriCorps interns, trained volunteers from the community and teachers are the “stewards” that help the “stewards in training” learn about the world around them.

The program, which has been going since 1997, has always had to survive on grants, fundraisers and donations. Unfortunately, due to funding shortages, 2004’s fall classes had to be put on hold. It takes $2,500 to run the 10-week program, of which the school pays $250. These days schools have trouble coming up with even that much. So far this year, only two schools, May Street and Westside, have had the funding to bring SECRETS to their 5th-graders.

“SECRETS is in peril,” Burton says. “It’s difficult to get grant money to cover (ongoing programs) — they want to cover projects; they want to cover exciting fixes for things. This is an educational program — science takes time; it’s complex.”

Last year CGEI had a person writing grants almost full time, but in the end the board came to the conclusion that “it just wasn’t happening that way anymore,” Burton says. “We decided we really needed to look at the fee-for-service program this summer, to be able to continue to fund SECRETS for next year.”

One way CGEI hopes to raise funds this year is with two summer day camps, one for ages 9-11 and one for ages 12-14. Over the five-day camp, kids will learn science concepts while kayaking, kite-boarding, rock climbing, mountain biking and hiking in the Columbia River Gorge.
“The idea is to be able to explore the defining physical characteristics of this area: wind, water, climbing, terrain — all these things create the ecology that we live in,” Burton says. “So we’ll have naturalists pairing with athletes.”

Both camps culminate in a stewardship program: The 9-11-year olds will help with a restoration project on the Hood River, and the 12-14-year-olds will be maintaining the Klickitat trails.

The camps, like the SECRETS program, meet Oregon Content Standards for academic benchmarks in science. Kids are pretested and post-tested, with impressive results: In the SECRETS program, post test scores revealed that students’ knowledge of basic science concepts improved by up to 40 percent.

Other fundraising efforts include book sales of board president Bill Weiler’s new “Don’t Run From Bears” (see sidebar), and the fifth annual Earth Day Celebration, where there will be a “SECRET” auction of goods and services for a $25 donation, which includes dinner, spirits, dessert, and activities.

Keeping SECRETS in the schools depends mostly on community involvement and financial support. Volunteers are as welcome as funds, and there are many ways to get involved behind the scenes as well as in the classroom. For more information, call the Gorge Ecology Institute, 387-2274.

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The Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute is the former SECRETS to Learning Rainshadow Institute, which got its start as the educational arm of Central Cascades Alliance, an advocacy group that no longer exists as an organization, although its work continues in other groups.