|
Located
in the heart of the Colorado Plateau in what is referred to as the
Grand Circle, Page High School is surrounded by enormous tracts
of government and tribal land. Inadequately equipped with resources
and staff, the National Park Service (NPS) and other agencies are
charged with the responsibility to conserve and manage this land.
To help fill the resource gap, students from Page High School initiated
the Field Science Partnership.
Under
the partnership, the students conduct experiments and collect data
for projects that would otherwise be ignored due to lack of staff
or funds. Specifically, they conduct water quality and bacterial
monitoring tests, compile statistical analyses for pond and rangeland
ecology, and advise the NPS on resource management decisions concerning
fish population. The students also operate grow-out facilities for
fish augmentation as part of a recovery plan for the razorback sucker,
a critically endangered fish. An innovative use of an existing space,
golf course ponds are used by the students as research facilities
and continually stocked with razorback suckers and other native
species. The students are not only impacting endangered species
recovery efforts, but also providing much needed research and management
support to government agencies and community interests.
But
the impacts on the teenage participants, many of whom are now actively
pursuing careers in environmental science, are just as impressive.
Jayrene, a Native American student completing a rangeland ecology
study for the NPS, asked the elders on the Navajo Nation what the
land looked like in the past. She was told that "when the wind
blew, the land looked like a yellow ocean" due to the swaying
of the vegetation. After participating in the Field Science Partnership,
Jayrene's career goal is "to make this land a yellow ocean once
again."
|