MissMaggie
Registered: December 2014
City/Town/Province: Kennewick
Posts: 1
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With one parent working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the other working for the Benton Conservation District, you could say a desire to serve the environment is in my blood. Two of my great loves in life are horses and hunting. Though the two may seem like an unlikely pair, they go hand in hand. As soon as I could talk, I begged my dad to take me hunting with him and my mom for a horse. It took nine years for both of them to concede, but eventually they did. With both, came great responsibility. As my knowledge of natural resources and ecosystems grew, so did my respect for them.
In much more recent years, I have had the privilege and honor of serving as a rodeo queen. Aside from the rodeos, parades, and public appearances, another huge part of my reign was community service. One of my favorite memories was volunteering at Salmon Summit, an educational field trip where 1,500+ elementary students get to learn about salmon and other related topics. I was asked to give the water safety presentation and that was the beginning of my involvement with the Salmon in the Classroom program.
For my Apprentice Ecologist project on behalf of the Nicodemus Wilderness Project, I continued and deepened my involvement within the Salmon in the Classroom program. Over the past year I have demonstrated many salmon dissections in elementary, middle, and homeschool classrooms as well as for family science nights. Living in the city, many of these students have never even seen a fish up close, let alone been able to closely examine a swim bladder or touch the teeth on a salmon’s tongue. In addition to dissecting male and female fish for students, I was also able to use an “Enviroscape” model at science nights to show students and their family’s how our actions on land including irrigation, recreation, and so on, effect our water quality.
To me, the most important aspect of this project has been the scientific outreach to youth in my community. This project has been much more than the efforts of one person. It has inspired a few young scientists and opened the eyes of many to importance of conservation of natural resources, especially waterways and animals within them. With the Columbia, Snake, and Yakima rivers being the centerpieces of what our community here in southeastern Washington is built on, it is exceedingly important to educate the next generation about proper stewardship of the land and water and to give them a greater appreciation for what we often mistakenly take for granted.
In the fall, I will be attending Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana. My major will be Equestrian Studies and a large part of that program will include range management. I look forward to this new chapter of learning and the opportunity I will have to share it with others.
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