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Ayden Banks, 6, puts all of his 50-pound body into digging a home for a new seedling tree during a planting effort Thursday at Camas Valley School. The event was sponsored by the Coquille Watershed Association. Ayden's digging coach, at left, is second-grader Byron Baker.
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ENLARGE
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Satisfaction comes in the form of placing the tree after the hole has been dug, according to James Beans, a third-grader at Camas Valley.
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CAMAS VALLEY — Local kids know their fish in Douglas County.
When asked Wednesday if they know what swims in the neighboring Coquille River, Camas Valley tots answered “steelhead, trout, bass and salmon.”
“Do you know what kind of salmon?” Bruce Follansbee asked the 23 students from kindergarten through third grade.
“Smoked salmon,” one boy answered.
Follansbee, a board member of the Coquille Watershed Association from outside the Coquille-Myrtle Point area, visited Camas Valley School to teach kids about conservation and lead a tree-planting effort.
“We go around and try to make the Coquille healthier by planting trees to shade it,” he said, explaining that the shade lowered stream temperatures, a condition that fish prefer.
With nary a raindrop in site, Wednesday was perfect for rooting in the dirt.
Armed with shovels and saplings, the planting crew fanned out along the nature trail near the football field.
Led by Follansbee and another association member, Pat Quinn, the students planted grand fir, ash and oak trees — 60 in all.
Each species has its own site preferences, Follansbee said. The oak like it high and dry. Grand fir can take more moisture and the ash, well, the ash likes to swim.
“Eww, now I got mud all over me,” 8-year-old Krystal Talley said after a shovel full of goo splattered her pants.
Talley and her digging partner, Joy DeRoss, 7, struggled to dig out their hole, which kept filling with water. Like other classmates, the lightweights leveraged all their weight onto the shovel handle to hoist out more mire.
Quinn — ready for the planting in work clothes, a half-cocked Gatsby hat, tree trivia and a jaunty sailor's tune on his lips — helped the kids slop through the messier excavations.
“There you go, set 'er in nice and easy. Now we're cooking with gas, kids,” he said, prompting a duo lowering an ash tree. “Johnny Appleseed's got nothing on us ... you're official tree planters now.”
Within the next few weeks, Quinn hopes to enlist a few of Camas Valley's older students to help him plant 200 more trees near already completed association stream fencing projects in other parts of the valley.
A few steps past Quinn, little Clara DeRoss, 5, poked her head over another soon-to-be tree site. She inspected it, offering up helpful hints on the size, scope and environment of the crater her partner 8-year-old Sam Roque was mucking out.
“It looks deep enough cause it's got water in it,” she said, laughing at her own joke before getting distracted by a wriggle just below her. “Hey, there's a worm.”
Teacher Katrina Carkhuff said this group of youngsters often clean up their campus and the tree planting was just another facet of helping to develop and improve their school.
“I think they're getting a sense of pride for their school grounds,” she said. “Their big concern right now is ‘How will I know which one is mine?'”
Carkhuff's comment reminded Sam of something.
“Come on, Clara, let's go find our tree,” he said.
• You can reach reporter DD Bixby at 957-4211 or by e-mail at dbixby@nrtoday.com.
When asked Wednesday if they know what swims in the neighboring Coquille River, Camas Valley tots answered “steelhead, trout, bass and salmon.”
“Do you know what kind of salmon?” Bruce Follansbee asked the 23 students from kindergarten through third grade.
“Smoked salmon,” one boy answered.
Follansbee, a board member of the Coquille Watershed Association from outside the Coquille-Myrtle Point area, visited Camas Valley School to teach kids about conservation and lead a tree-planting effort.
“We go around and try to make the Coquille healthier by planting trees to shade it,” he said, explaining that the shade lowered stream temperatures, a condition that fish prefer.
With nary a raindrop in site, Wednesday was perfect for rooting in the dirt.
Armed with shovels and saplings, the planting crew fanned out along the nature trail near the football field.
Led by Follansbee and another association member, Pat Quinn, the students planted grand fir, ash and oak trees — 60 in all.
Each species has its own site preferences, Follansbee said. The oak like it high and dry. Grand fir can take more moisture and the ash, well, the ash likes to swim.
“Eww, now I got mud all over me,” 8-year-old Krystal Talley said after a shovel full of goo splattered her pants.
Talley and her digging partner, Joy DeRoss, 7, struggled to dig out their hole, which kept filling with water. Like other classmates, the lightweights leveraged all their weight onto the shovel handle to hoist out more mire.
Quinn — ready for the planting in work clothes, a half-cocked Gatsby hat, tree trivia and a jaunty sailor's tune on his lips — helped the kids slop through the messier excavations.
“There you go, set 'er in nice and easy. Now we're cooking with gas, kids,” he said, prompting a duo lowering an ash tree. “Johnny Appleseed's got nothing on us ... you're official tree planters now.”
Within the next few weeks, Quinn hopes to enlist a few of Camas Valley's older students to help him plant 200 more trees near already completed association stream fencing projects in other parts of the valley.
A few steps past Quinn, little Clara DeRoss, 5, poked her head over another soon-to-be tree site. She inspected it, offering up helpful hints on the size, scope and environment of the crater her partner 8-year-old Sam Roque was mucking out.
“It looks deep enough cause it's got water in it,” she said, laughing at her own joke before getting distracted by a wriggle just below her. “Hey, there's a worm.”
Teacher Katrina Carkhuff said this group of youngsters often clean up their campus and the tree planting was just another facet of helping to develop and improve their school.
“I think they're getting a sense of pride for their school grounds,” she said. “Their big concern right now is ‘How will I know which one is mine?'”
Carkhuff's comment reminded Sam of something.
“Come on, Clara, let's go find our tree,” he said.
• You can reach reporter DD Bixby at 957-4211 or by e-mail at dbixby@nrtoday.com.
