Field Day on Beaver Creek

Bus to Beaver Creek

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Valdasue Steele and Malchus Baker

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Riparian area

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Fifty students from Mayer High School Future Farmers of America Class, two instructors (Clyde McBride and Daniel Coulter), one bus driver, and six presenters attended Beaver Creek Field Day on Friday, October 9, 1998.

The bus met the presenters on the Stoneman Lake Road, south of Flagstaff at 9 am. Malchus Baker, (USFS) rode the bus with the group to discuss the Beaver Creek Watershed project. The first stop was watershed 12. The group broke into three smaller groups:

• "What Is a Watershed?" was discussed by Malchus Baker and Dan Neary (USFS)
• "Soil and Wildlife Effects on Watersheds" was covered by Valdasue Steele and Connie Fitzsimmons (Cooperative Extension). This section started with instructions on determining soil texture by feel.
• "Measuring Vegetation to Monitor Rangelands" was led by Deborah Young (Cooperative Extension)

After lunch (on the bus), the group met at the Beaver Creek picnic area. The group broke into two groups. Dan Neary discussed riparian issues and Jack Watson (Cooperative Extension) taught the students about water quality and quantity.

The students were asked to complete an evaluation which, in part, tested their knowledge about watershed. Forty-one evaluations were completed, with an average of 12.5 correct answers out of 15 possible points. Twenty-one of the evaluations included ideas on what can be done differently to care for watersheds. In answer to the question "who should decide how watersheds are managed, one answered "government", eighteen answered "local people", one answered "big cities", and twenty-one answered "mother nature". In answer to the questions, "how much was learned today", three answered "nothing", five answered "a little", nine answered "some", and twenty-four answered "a lot".