NPS Helps Students Interpret Local Trail

The National Park Service -- through the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA) -- was recently asked to return to Irrigon, Oregon, to help a high school science class develop interpretive materials for the Columbia River Heritage Trail.

The project presented RTCA a non-traditional opportunity to engage youth with the agency’s conservation and recreation mission. The RTCA program was last in Morrow County nearly a decade ago when it assisted communities along the Columbia River in north-central Oregon develop a plan for this 30-mile recreational trail.

The request for technical assistance came from Heather Miller, the science teacher at Irrigon High School.  Mrs. Miller, a runner and avid ecologist, feels the trail is a special place in Irrigon for people and nature.  She is hopeful the student’s efforts will spark renewed awareness and appreciation of the trail. RTCA’s support in coordinating with local, state and federal land managers and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation was critical in maintaining communication and the class completing the project.

An informal unveiling of the new interpretive panel was held on the Columbia River Heritage Trail by the science inquiry class in late May, the end of the 2008-09 school year. The new informational panel, located at the western edge of the Irrigon Marina Park, a LWCF-protected site, describes the shrub-steppe ecosystem in words and photographs.  The ninth through eleventh grade class spent the school year studying the ecology along a section of the trail, a ten-minute walk from the classroom. This is the first formal use of the heritage trail as an outdoor classroom for academic purposes.

At the trailhead ceremony, the Morrow County planning director, Carla McLane, had this to say: â€œIt really is exciting to see how the class and this sign support the vision and goals established for the trail in that 2000 plan!  The student’s work documents nature along the trail, promotes stewardship and demonstrates community involvement”.