Focus Watershed: Cane Creek of Red River

In 1996, the International Training and Development Center started a comprehensive long-range plan for watershed restoration on a 500-acre tract of land on the Cane Creek watershed, a tributary of the Red River in Menifee County.  The project components included restoration of old logging roads, removal of dump sites, cleaning extensive logging debris from creek beds, building erosion control basins, construction of numerous wildlife watering holes and vernal ponds, stream bank erosion control, tree planting and native plant seeding, and trail construction.  Over the next several years, the organization plans to include additional stream bed erosion control, restoration of hillside erosion, native grass seeding, trail maintenance, and construction of several small cabins and an educational classroom building.  The long-range goal is to restore the watershed to pristine condition, provide a comprehensive environmental wilderness laboratory, and develop an outdoor education program.

The purpose of this project is to introduce at least six school and education systems to the “Watershed Education Project” during the 2008-09 school year.  Project leaders will reach out to a broad spectrum of youth and adults, and will target a mixture of four or five public school systems, one private school program, one home school group, and an enriched school year program or Summer school program.  The selected schools systems will agree to participate in the entire project, and the project coordinator in the schools will be the science teacher or adult leader and a selected classroom unit of students.  The “Watershed Education Project” consists of two in-school visits and one on-site field experience.  Participation will involve students, teachers; and may include other school personnel and parents.  ITDC staff will review curriculum with teachers to select appropriate classroom units of study as a lead-in to the project. 

The in-school workshops will focus on all aspects of watershed ecology, bringing examples of local wildlife and plants, and discussing human impacts and problem solutions.  They will also introduce the various conservation project components, and prepare students for the field experience.  There will be a choice of conservation projects offered to all students who participate, ranging from tree planting and plant seeding, erosion control construction, trail construction, birdhouse construction and Bluebird Trail construction, water sampling and monitoring, macro-invertebrate sampling, fish stocking.  The field experience will focus on man’s impact on the watershed area, studying the various projects that ITDC has undertaken to improve and restore the watershed and water quality.  Students will conduct field research and enjoy a day in the wilderness to appreciate the benefits of watershed preservation.

This project is the first of a regular series of school programs ITDC plans on offering in the years ahead, developing into both day experiences, as well as resident environmental programs.  This project will be a pilot model for a more extensive student-driven study of the watershed, and will tie hand-in-hand with Phase III of the organization’s restoration and development initiative.