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Day 13: POBR June 28, 2024

Day 13: June 28, 2024                Today we were scheduled to wake up at 7:30am. However, I woke up at 6am to shower and get ready for the day. Turning into an early bird here. Monet cooked up a big breakfast, it was fire. Very much appreciated. After breakfast, we were scheduled to meet up and start working on our posters. Dr. Black had us delete a lot of our work that was done on there and then started working on the methodologies. An hour into this grind, Warren Seyler stopped by to chat with all of us. We gathered into a circle, then Seyler had us introduce ourselves then share what schools K-12 we attended. He wanted to get to know who we are and where we come from. Then he also asked what our career goals are. So, we went around the circle to share our goals.  Seyler emphasized how important it is that we continue to pursue our degrees then work for our tribes.                 After the discussion, we went back to finish up our methodology section of our poster. Then we jumped
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Day 12: POBR June 27, 2024

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 Day 12: June 27, 2024             The class was scheduled to wake up by 6:30am. Today we were scheduled to meet with Fisheries from the Spokane tribe. Brian Crosley, a fisheries biologist took us out to a few of their properties for habitat restoration data collection. A year ago, Crosley had some beaver dam analogs (BDAs) in their watershed. However, Crosely decided to use rocks (basalt) instead of actual wooden posts or logs. Crosley also shared how they have to build relationships with a lot of land owners/neighbors to work on part of their land. Unfortunately, this can limit their capacity of work--meaning that if a landowner isn't willing to allow them to work on their land then they can't.  Croseley also shared the history of the channel as well, where the stream that we were working on was heavily used as an irrigation cannel. Crosley's goal is to help the stream ordinate it back to a healthy stream system.           Today's activity involved measuring the amoun
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Location: Wellpinit, WA 99040, USA
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Day 11: POBR June 26, 2024

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Day 11: June 26, 2024                     Travel day. Class was class scheduled to wake up by 6:30am and left Harris campgrounds by 8:30am. Packed up and headed north. Once we part ways, we dropped off one student off in Tri-Cities. We arrived to Wellpinit around 2pm. Waited for Dr. Black to catch up and then we set up camp. We had a few hours of freetime to relax. Virginia and I decided to go check out the culture event happening at the powwow grounds. We ended up getting thrown on a stickgame team that was going on. The family that was there was super nice! Being around my people and my culture made me miss home! They also invited us to a feast, but sadly I don't think we can go.  😥                     After dinner, we jumped right into our lab coats to start the process for bacteria culturing and starch hydrology testing for the water samples for Crane Prairie and Keyes Creek. The process for this step was to pull the agar plates (from the bacteria isolation) out of the incubat
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Location: Wellpinit, WA 99040, USA
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Day 10: POBR June 25, 2024

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Day 10: June 25, 2024                     The class was scheduled to wake up at 7:30am. We at breakfast and hit the road by 8am. Our first stop was the Imtuwana WallaWalla Fish Hatchery. Where we first met TeLa Branstetter, a habitat biologist for the CTIUR. Branstetter took us out to a field to observe and identify invasive weeds. Then John, the technician caught up with us to take us to the SF Wallawalla River to look at microvertabrates. Both John and TeLa emphasized that microvertibrates are a good indication that the river is healthy. TeLa also explained that having log structures in the stream helps recharge the floodplains. The SF Wallawalla River has bulltrout, rainbow trout, sculpins, and chinook salmon present. John also showed us a sculpin and cattes flies that were found on rocks.  It is interesting to learn about the different management of habitat restoration. Definitely eye opening.                      After our small tour was over with the habitat restoration project,
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Location: Mission, OR 97801, USA
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Day 9: POBR June 24, 2024

Day 9: June 24, 2024 The class was scheduled to wake up at 5:45am. The OSU geology camp staff was kind and generous to share a hot breakfast with us. After breakfast, we broke down camp and then class was scheduled at 8am with Dr. Schuster. After I broke down camp, I had about 30-40minutes before our class. So, I decided to work on our blogs. In class, we started working our poster on “Assessing Water Quality and Bacteria Load Across Washington and Oregon.” After class, we went out and collected a water sample and conductivity for Keyes Creek which is located right by the geology campsite. This day was also considered a travel day for us. We were scheduled to leave by 12pm. We started traveling around 12pm and then got to Harris Park in the Umatilla area around 4:30pm. We unloaded and set up camp and got dinner started and called it a night.
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Day 8: POBR June 23, 2024

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  Day 8: June 23, 2024                     The class was scheduled to wake up at 5:30am. The plan for the day was to go out to the field with a geologist. We got out in the field by 7am. Brennan Van Alderwerelt, a geoscientist was our field guide. Van Alderwerelt works with the Washington Department of Natural Resources but is very familiar with the landscape and history of this area we were stationed at. First and foremost, Van Alderwerelt started off with a land acknowledgment. He stated that the first people of this land were the Northern Paiute (Numu), Western Shoshone (Sosone), Cayuse, Sahaptin (Tenino, Celilo, Tukspust, and other Warm Springs bands), Snake, Wasco and Wishram (Chinook), Bannock, WallaWalla, Nez Perce, Wanapum, and even Molala. Van Alderwerelt stated that the historic evidence holds a strong indigenous perspective in western science. Van Alderwerelt also shared that human habitations (rock shelters and pit houses) in the John Day area have been dated as over 5,000
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Day 7: POBR June 22, 2024

 Day 7: June 22, 2024 The class was scheduled to wake up at 6:30am. We got up and then started backing up and breaking down our tents. We ate breakfast and then started breaking down camp. We left the Crane Prairie campground around 8:30am and then traveled into town. Once we got to town, Dr. Schuster dropped us off at the Downtown Bend Library to work on our blogs.  Then after that, we stopped by the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. My favorite exhibit is “Sensing Sasquatch.” This exhibit shared the local tribes’ beliefs and stories of sasquatch. It was interesting to see him being recognized in a respectful manner by the indigenous peoples and by the High Desert Museum. Day 7 was considered a travel day. We finally arrived at the OSU geology field camp in Mitchell Oregon around 6:30pm. We set up camp and called it a night. 
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