- Expedition: Sep 30 - Oct 4, 2002
- Woodlake and Reedley High Schools
- Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks
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!
