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Youth Ed Community

As part of an effort to make our programming accessible and relevant to the growing Latino population, in 2018 we partnered with Lincoln School and the OSU Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) undergraduate club to develop a Bilingual Family STEM Night – a first for our area.

Since the coronavirus pandemic curtailed our ability to offer most in-person volunteer events, tours, workshops, talks, and other educational programming, Benton SWCD began sending out a weekly e-news to help us stay in touch. Here is a table with links to each of the e-news we’ve sent during the first year of the pandemic, from

As a Garfield Elementary School teacher, Karrie Woodruff became part of the BSWCD community through Salmon Watch in the fall of 2017. Since fewer Spanish-language resources exist, she creates engaging, hands-on lessons that build from what students know from their surroundings and integrate multicultural perspectives.

Gaia Girls: Enter the Earth has an optimistic message of standing up for your beliefs and it’s a great adventure story written for 9-13 year olds.

Teaching with Fire is a beautiful and passionate book about how teachers use their favorite poems to keep their hearts alive as they rise to the joys and challenges of teaching

Here is a summary of the Summer Ag Institute Scholarships we have awarded since 2011. We only fund educators who work in Benton County for Session 1 of Oregon Agriculture In the Classroom’s Summer Ag Institute, which takes place in the summer. Year School/Organization Teacher 2019 Summer Ag Institute General Program Sponsorship 2018 Crescent Valley

Here is a summary of the conservation education grants we have funded since 2007.   School Year School/Organization Project Amount Funded 19-20 Cascade Pacific RC&D/ Garfield/Lincoln Willamette Laja Twinning Youth Education Aves Compartidas $1,000.00 19-20 Inst. for Applied Ecology/ Garfield/Lincoln Willamette Laja Twinning Youth Education Aves Compartidas $996.50 19-20 Adams Elementary School Garden $342.99 19-20

In the north Pacific, the Blob returned in 2019.

Kids in Linn and Benton Counties are fortunate to have lifelong educator Ron Leonard to guide their outdoor education.

Tara Davis puts her unique skill set to work for watershed health, here in Oregon and abroad.

Wapato Harvesting for Planting at Collins Bay   On a dry day in late summer, Benton SWCD’s Holly Crosson and Melissa Lemein along with myself, an OSU student volunteer, went to local landowner Marvin Gilmour’s farm to harvest wapato (Sagittaria latifolia) tubers for future planting at Collins Bay. Collins Bay is a side-channel of the