Charlie's Angels Alive and Well in Silver Springs

charlie's ang

  The appreciation picnic for the teen volunteers at Lahontan State Recreation Area was great fun thanks to fantastic board members willing to work hard, good food, bright sun and water!  The teens canoed, ate, and defended themselves in a good water fight!  I would say the day was perfect in every way...but for the wind.  At the end of the day the wind caught our attention and demanded that we work with the canopies, chairs blowing over and all our "stuff" blowing about.  It was a brief attack but managed to convince us that the "windy city" has met it's match throughout Nevada!

Renewing Energy and Exploring the Results

One of the best things about being able to see and work with someone that is using or working with renewable resources is that you can explore the logistics and see how it will work for you as well as get some tips that will help you get yours working. One of the surprises that I got on this field trip was that there are other ways of having solar power without batteries.  You can put the power into the grid and get discounts on your power bill and tax credits. One of the things I wanted to know is if it is possible for any person to do this, not just people that have money. The things that I found out through this experience are that there are ways to get through and to accomplish your goals with very little expense on the part of the owner. This will definitely help me in my exploration of renewable energy and help me get my own setup of renewable energy.

Brennan, Silver Stage High School

visited Comstock Seeds in Gardnerville, Nevada

owner, Ed Kleiner

Reptiles are Heading to Old Town Dayton

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 They're on their way to the Carson River Festival!!  The reptile exhibit is always popular and kids; young and old, love to handle the snakes.  Thanks to Matt Duncan with a Reno pet store, families get to check out a variety of native and exotic reptiles.  Find out what is involved to get a pet reptile....learn about the native reptiles and what happens when exotics are released in the wild by a "worn out" pet owner.  Bad stuff for sure!  Mark your calendar for Sat. and Sun., June 1 and 2 in Old Town Dayton.  The Festival begins at 9am and ends at 3 pm.

Carson River Festival is Coming to Old Town Dayton!

You won't want to miss it!  One of the most exciting events of the year, the Carson River Festival, is scheduled on Saturday and Sunday, June 2 and 3, 2012 in Old Town Dayton from 9-3 pm.   We have hands-on activities planned and every day, students from Silver Stage and Dayton High Schools are out in the community, learning about the watershed so they can translate their knowledge into fun. I'll be posting highlights from the various job shadows so stay tuned.

Conserve Carson River Work Days 2009

River Wranglers organized or collaborated on six work days in the Carson River watershed at the end of the year. The first event, in Carson Valley, was taught by high school students from Douglas High School FFA. They worked with elementary 4th graders from Gardnerville and Minden elementary schools. The high school students did a great job and many returned the following day to teach students from CC Meneley and Minden schools. What we did not expect was the severe decline in weather as a storm moved into the area and drenched our event, bringing in freezing temperatures as well. Not to be undone by weather, we donned black plastic garbage bags fashioned into raincoats. We persevered and the day ended well, probably more memorable than most. Allyson Lammiman and her students make a great team. Thanks to all of them!

Special recognition to Kim for taking over the bioengineering station when the adult in charge had a medical emergency. She didn't even flinch, took over the station and the work went on!
Way to go, Kim!

Free Film Festival January 28, Carson City

The public is invited to attend a free film festival to view student multimedia projects that explore how Carson River riparian areas benefit the community and need to be protected by the public. The festival will be held on January 28 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Carson City Sheriff’s Office, 911 E. Musser St. Refreshments will be served, and a feature film about stream restoration will also be shown.

The video and slide-show projects are contestants in the Carson River Coalition Education Working Group’s “Keep Streamsides Greener, Keep Water Cleaner” contest, which will award a cash prize of $500 in each of four categories.

The contest was open to students in the ninth through 12th grades of Carson and Douglas high schools and Carson Valley and Pau-Wa-Lu middle schools. The entries had to be one to three minutes long, and were required to address this theme: How Carson River riparian areas benefit you and your community, and how to get people involved in riparian area preservation. Entries were judged on creativity, effective, quality of execution and compliance with contest rules and specifications.

The contest working group includes the Carson River Coalition’s Education Working Group, the Carson Water Subconservancy District, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and River Wranglers. Prizes will be awarded to the best individual video, team video, individual animated slide show and team animated slide show. Also, each winning entry’s sponsoring teacher will earn $100.

Although each entrant or team had a sponsoring teacher to encourage participation and provide general guidance, students developed their own concepts and entries.

Dr. Susan Donaldson, a water quality expert with Cooperative Extension and a contest organizer, said the contest gives students an appreciation of how riparian areas provide important wildlife habitat and help keep the river clean by filtering runoff.

“Healthy, diverse riparian areas store water and help reduce floods, filter water and keep it cool and provide a place for recreation,” said Donaldson, who takes field trips to the river with certain classes. “They add to our quality of life.”

Project WET and Sierra Nevada Journeys Workshop by C ora

August 13, 2009, Thursday, my last day with Linda, this day came too fast. Seems like this whole thing started a week ago, and I am sad to say good-bye. I’ve met wonderful people I hopefully will see again, and I hopefully will see Linda again.

Well to start things off about today, we drove up to Sand Harbor at Lake Tahoe, to have a fun day in the sun and do a Project WET workshop with Sierra Nevada Journeys. Mary Kay put the whole thing together, and Pat was in charge of kayaking from Sand Harbor to Thunderbird Lodge. We did a little ice breaker, go to know one another, and then we’re paired off onto the kayaks. Of course me and Linda were together. The water was calm and peaceful and looked so silky and smooth you just wanted to fall asleep on it, well I did anyways. A young woman, no older than in her twenties, told us history about Tahoe as we were paddling and we actually stopped above a school of fish. When we arrived at the little beach we set up canopies and got everything ready for the activities. Linda and I started things off with two posters and six questions per team, teams were separated through an invisible line on the sand. If you answered the question correctly on the first clue you got four points and if you got it on the second you got three points and so on, but there was only four clues. After that we got pieces of paper and you crumpled them and then traced the top of the wrinkles with brown and then you’d add green for plants, and blue for water, and that was an activity to make your 3-D watershed. Linda and I presented the Incredible Journey.. Everybody got to make a water cycle bracelet and, at the end, tell their journey. After this activity was completed, we all got to have our lunch break. Pat told us about the house over the water, the Thunderbird Lodge, so after we settled our stomachs we headed over to the house. Since the waves and the wind were picking up we had to quickly migrate back to Sand Harbor after loading up the kayaks once more. The ride back was rough but it was challenging and fun. We got soaked a few times from the crash of the waves but it was nothing we couldn’t handle. Safely to the shore we unloaded and got into groups of six and had to defend and a make a solution for the problem we were given. Nick from Sierra Nevada Journeys was in charge of this activity and got us ready for the problem. The problem was this: Las Vegas is taking water from eastern Nevada and eastern Nevada needs water from the Truckee River. We were given a role to play, like acting, and you had to state why you thought the way your card told you. In the end we figured that we should use our water more carefully, and that Las Vegas should think again about taking our water. After the little groups gathered again to our big we all told our stories and solutions. Then Mary Kay talked to us for a while about the books we passed out and we started looking over some activities the teachers could do in the classrooms. Then as the day was hot and we were all tired Mary Kay decided to wrap up the day. This was my final day working with Linda and it couldn’t have been better.