Newsletter

Cariboo Forest Education Highlights
Gail Wallin & Maureen LeBourdais ( Cariboo Forest Educators)

Tolko's Cariboo Woodland Group Creates Watershed Model for Salmon Festival

Reprinted with permission from the Tolko Circular

The Horsefly River Salmon Festival occurs every four years to celebrate the sockeye salmon run. As part of the festival's educational component, Tolko's Cariboo Woodlands group, along with members of the Public Advisory Committee, manned a small-scale watershed model between September 12 and 16.

Woodlands employees created their display by digging a small trench along the ground to replicate the Horsefly River watershed. Alongside the trench in the upper section of the watershed, they assembled mountains, streams, logging operations, road and bridge construction, riparian protection, slope stability issues and wildlife concerns. The lower section of the watershed model dealt with recreational usage and farming concerns and had a swamp area at the end to address wetland issues. A small pump was used to fill the "Horsefly River" with water.

Throughout the festival, students arrived in groups of 20 or more and spent time in each section of the river. Over the course of the week, over 1200 area students from grades one through twelve were exposed to a range of land use decisions, including Forestry, that impact the entire watershed.

Student and teacher response to the watershed model was positive and, although Tolko couldn't compete with the Salmon Dissection display, the Cariboo Woodlands group came in a strong second in the eyes of the students!!

Students view the watershed model	Working hard in the construction stages

< Back to Index    East Kootenay Forest Education Highlights >