Wade into water issues at Mt. Hood’s school

Program on April 16-17 looks at local watershed and more

By Sharon Nesbit

The Gresham Outlook, Mar 31, 2010, Updated Mar 31, 2010

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Kicking through this week’s substantial rain puddles, it would seem that Western Oregon would be the last place to worry about water.

But with clean water an increasingly rare resource, taking care of it is the topic of Water School, an April 16-17 mini-college held for the first time at Mt. Hood Community College.

Mt. Hood, says MHCC’s Robert Weinman, is ideally situated as a venue for protecting water resources. It has its own creek, Beaver Creek, threading right through the campus, and its location near the Columbia and Sandy rivers and upstream from Portland makes it ideal for field study of water and watershed.

“MHCC is in a position to have a positive influence on a threatened river in our backyard,” said Weinman, referring to the recent listing of Pacific smelt that once ran in the Sandy River. Weinman is a business and industry workforce training coordinator at the college. This water school is the first for MHCC, but he hopes to repeat it every year.

What do you learn in water school? Classes and field trips will focus on watershed processes, the Clean Water Act and what you need to know, rain gardens, wetland ecology and restoration, groundwater hydrology, geology of the Columbia River basin, and fish biology and habitat. One Saturday field trip will be a geology tour of the Columbia River Gorge focusing on its water-carrying capabilities.

The Friday and Saturday school is a cooperative effort of Oregon State University Extension Service, Columbia Riverkeeper and other local partners. It is targeted for natural resource professionals, gardeners, educators, watershed council staff and volunteers and land developers who need to learn about Oregon’s intricate watershed ecosystem. Attendance earns a credit toward Master Watershed Steward training requirements.

Four 90-minute sessions are scheduled Friday, April 16, with field application sessions set for Saturday. Also part of the event is a watershed expo, held from noon to 1 p.m., by MHCC student clubs.

At 5:30 p.m. Friday, the film “Source to the Sea: The Columbia River Swim” will be shown. The 80-minute documentary, featuring Chris Swain’s 1,243-mile swim down the entire length of the Columbia in 2006, won an award at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival in 2007.

Participants also will have an opportunity to be part of the Adopt-a-River monitoring program in which volunteers assess, clean and monitor a stretch of the Columbia and tributaries.

Registration deadline for the two-day school is April 9. Cost is $50. To register, call 503-491-7235.