2006 PEND OREILLE WATER FESTIVAL This event has been held in May since 1995 and focuses on fifth graders from many schools. This includes all county schools, private schools, home-schools, and schools just over the Idaho border.  Starting in April staff members of the Pend Oreille Conservation District go into the fifth grade classes to teach students the dynamics of watershed ecosystems.  On May 10th, over 150 fifth graders, teachers, some moms and dads, along with many volunteers had an exciting day attending the annual Water Festival at the Pend Oreille County Fairgrounds.   What is a Water Festival? It is a celebration focused on watershed education, helping students to learn how to be good stewards of the ecosystems in which they live.  When students arrived they were given a short welcome and sent on their way to begin a rotation of six interactive stations.   Station One: The “Salmon Spawning Game” is an exercise taught by the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council. It is a game in which the kids play the part of salmon migrating up stream, encountering predatory birds, fishermen, dams, and rocks as they proceed to their spawning grounds. The students have to jump across a sheet of plastic representing a waterfall which migrating fish have to clear in order to reach their spawning grounds. This game gave the kids a fun way to visualize how out of every 5000 – 7000 salmon eggs, only 10% of the adults make it to the spawning grounds due to natural or manmade obstacles they encounter on their migration route. Station Two: The "Head Pressure Station" was conducted by our local Public Utility District #1. At this station the kids were introduced to the concept of “Head Pressure” and how this pressure is used to run the generators at the dams. A plastic 2-liter bottle full of water was used to simulate water pressure created by the river. They evaluated the length of a stream of water coming from a 2-liter bottle when a stick-pin at different levels was removed. Each test was conducted using the same standards. The averages for each pin were calculated and recorded to demonstrate "Head Pressure" graphically.  Station Three: The “Water Bugs Station" was conducted by volunteers from Spokane Community College's Water Resource Program. The kids were handed a container of combined pond and creek water, where they discovered the many different bugs found in these ecosystems. Assisted by volunteers, the students referred to bug identification charts and books to identify their discoveries.   Station Four: The “Enviroscape” was an interactive watershed landscape setting where volunteers from  Spokane Community College, Water Resources Program assisted children in identifying the functions of a watershed. The Enviroscape is a hard plastic model of a landscape which includes houses farms factories, cars, creeks and a lake. Once everything is set, the kids apply fertilizer to the lawns (Kool-aid), oil spots to the road (soy sauce), dirt to the freshly plowed fields (instant tea) and pesticides (Kool-aid) to areas they identify as needing them. Once this is accomplished, they pick up squirt bottles and make it rain. As all these items wash away they follow the creeks into the lake giving the kids a great example of “ Non-point Source ” pollution.   Station Five: The “Animal Tracks”  run by volunteers, taught the kids about the different animals living in the watershed and how to identify their prints. This was a great hands-on station. Each student received a muslin square they could stamp animal tracks on to tell a story or create a design.    Station Six: The “Wildfire Station” was run by Fire District 4. At this station kids had to race with water buckets down their lanes to fill a large bucket at the far end of the course. To demonstrate the importance of driveway access for emergency vehicles, one lane was straight and the other zigzagged.  Somewhere in all this fun was lunch, where all the people attending the Water Festival were treated to wonderful music by “Banjo Bob” who played a lot of sing-a-long songs and got people dancing.   If you home school or belong to a home school group, please call us for educational events your kids can attend for free. Please contact the Pend Oreille Conservation District at (509) 447-4217. Thanks to the many parents, volunteers and agency personnel who donated time and energy to make this year's Festival a success!     Home Page || About POCD || Grant Programs Cost Share Programs || Education Programs Community Services || Special Links || Contact Us Copyright © 2001 The Pend Oreille Conservation District, All Rights Reserved.