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Originally appears in the Fall 2021 issue.

By Sanne van der Ros

“No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced” ~ David Attenborough

“My thoughts and feelings have definitely changed about the basin. I think I understand it a lot more now and I can see the river in my mind just because I have canoed it now. I care about it more,” reflects a 16-year-old student. Gathered on the sandy shore of the Columbia River near Castlegar, British Columbia, this student and her cohort from across the Canadian Columbia Basin just completed an immersive, educational field course. They took two weeks out of their summer to earn four high school credits, while learning many important aspects of the river’s story, including the geology, history, culture, politics, economics, hydrology, and ecology of the watershed.

As a researcher, I joined the Columbia River Field School (CRFS) in 2019. These students’ experiences of seeing the river from the perspective of the water and paddling in canoes while camping along the shores opened their eyes to a new way of knowing the river. Following the course, many students attended international conferences about the future of the Columbia River and took on leadership roles in their schools, communities, or province.

I can relate to these students’ sentiments because I have also developed a love affair with rivers that runs deep. Ever since I was young, I was drawn to our local river near my hometown in the Netherlands. The day when I first kayaked there was the start of a new life journey. Exploring the river from the cockpit of my kayak was the springboard for many paddling trips, both locally and abroad. I still love being on the river. Paddling gives me a sense of peace, a belonging, and a deeper understanding of where I fit into the larger watershed. I believe that my strong, emotional bond to local rivers has led me to deeply care for these waterways. I want to see them clean and healthy and flowing freely. As a result, I participate in shoreline cleanup events, write politicians in support of river conservation efforts, and educate students on the importance of healthy watersheds through activities like the ones to follow geared toward middle and high school students.

The watershed in two hands

To help my students understand what a watershed is, I invite them to cup their hands as if to drink some water. With their paired palms and fingers tips facing up, this learning tool helps my students to visualize some of the elements of a watershed. Their fingertips represent the highest points in the watershed, the divide, from which any precipitation and runoff flows through small streams, represented by the spaces between their fingers and folds in their hands. The surface water gathers into a larger body of water, such as a river, which can be visualized between their two hands, flowing towards their bodies where the space between their arms represents a large lake or ocean. This way, my students can picture that a watershed is an area of land that drains or “sheds” all water to a specific waterbody.

Dispelling the myth

It is important that people get to know their local watershed. We need to dispel the myth that we have an abundance of available, clean water accessible to all living things. Believing in the myth of water abundance has likely led to negative environmental impacts on many North American rivers. Many of the continent’s rivers face increasing and multiple threats to their health caused by human activities. Large, urban populations put increased pressure on a limited water supply. Freshwater habitats are diminished or polluted due to activities related to agriculture, industry, energy production, and resource extraction. Climate change impacts the entire watershed. Added to these challenges is the lack of facts on the quantity and quality of water in most watersheds and the cumulative impacts of these watershed threats. 

Calling for a shift

A mindset shift is needed to prevent further environmental degradation of watersheds across North America. We need to start realizing that rivers are like life-sustaining blood of the landscape and that we need to care for these important waterways and adjacent lands. Seeing through a watershed lens reveals interconnections that know no human-made boundaries. We’re all connected to the water in the watershed. In fact, we are water; well over half of our human bodies are made of water. It is no wonder that we feel in our element when going to the beach, swimming in a calm lake, or paddling on a river.

How to watershed ed

A way to shift perspectives is perhaps to examine our relationship with the land and the water. How many students who you work with have been living in the same place for multiple generations? Globalization has caused many people to relocate for various reasons and they are thus more likely to feel disconnected from the places that they now call home. It may be that we need to experience our local rivers to deeply understand their social, political, environmental, and cultural meanings in order to care for them and, ultimately, take responsibility for them.

One of the best ways to do this is to get outside and get to know your watershed through direct, hands-on, and place-based learning experiences. While the 16 students on the Columbia River Field School program were very fortunate to develop their sense of stewardship for the river and watershed through two weeks of canoeing and living on the river and meeting with local experts and community members along the way, I understand that this educational model takes a lot of funding, coordinating, and time. Below I highlight some activities that can increase your students’ connection to the watershed in perhaps more accessible ways.

How to watershed ed — Voice of the River: a video journey

As a researcher on the CRFS program, I interviewed the students and highlighted the youths’ voices in a 42-minute video to show how this learning experience impacted them deeply. Watching the video Voice of the River aims to inspire educators and students to learn more about the watershed they call home, to discover the beauty and significance of healthy rivers and wetlands, and to become a voice for the river themselves. Teachers can obtain an accompanying educator’s guide when attending our three-part “watershed ed” film/webinar series this coming winter. The guide includes prompts related to the video content, lesson ideas, and relevant resources. It is my hope that educators like you will be empowered to create place-based, experiential educational opportunities for your students. You can watch a “trailer” for the video here using the password “watershed-education.”

Sample 1 from Voice of the River Educator’s Guide

Makes You Think

• Location: Classroom or outside
• Time: varies (video is 42 minutes and broken into five chapters)
• Summary: When watching the video with your class, invite your students to think about how they relate to the youths’ voices as the story unfolds using the provided prompts.
• Some suggested prompts from the guide:
  – Is there an outdoor place that makes you feel at home? Where is it? Why does it make you feel at home?
  – Can you situate yourself in the watershed where you live? What’s the closest river or stream?
  – Have you ever seen where the water comes from upstream of the closest river or stream near your home? Will you be able to go there and experience the headwaters of the watershed?
  – What do you want to learn about the watershed where you live? Make a list and start learning!
  – Have you seen a nearby natural area change from a healthy home for wildlife and flora to a place that’s inhabitable to these non-human beings? How did that affect you?
  – Think of a time when you helped the environment. What did you do? Why did you do it? How did it make you feel? Would you do it again?
• Methods: Some ways to engage your students in their reflections include think-pair-share, a small-group activity, journaling, sketching, or acting it out. You could watch the video indoors and then take this reflection activity outside.

Sample 2 from Voice of the River Educator’s Guide

Nature or Not Nature?

One of the students in Voice of the River said, “Nature has taken us in as one of their own”. After discussing what that may mean, you could lead your students through the following learning activity.

• Location: any open space where you can still speak and listen effectively
• Time: 10–20 minutes
• Summary: Students vote with their feet to show if they think the item you call out is a part of nature or not part of nature.
• Lesson flow: Invite students at the centre line or area and identify the far distance where they would walk or run to if they thought the item you have called out is “definitely not part of nature.” Do the same on the opposite side of the centre line for “definitely part of nature.” You can have a sliding scale where students won’t position themselves at the extreme ends but somewhere along the line. An item to start with would be a spruce tree, a bubbling spring, or a Bull Trout. Most students will know that these are a part of nature. Invite one or two students to defend their position to the rest of the group. Regroup in the centre for the next item to decide on. Increase the challenge by calling out items such as a freshly picked apple, a log cabin along the shore of a river, or a goldfish. Again, invite students to explain their reasoning. Other challenging items could include water from the tap, a fishing rod, or a wooden boat. The final item will be a human.
• Discussion points: Many students will come up with a definition of what is “nature” and what is “not nature” during this activity. You can challenge their thinking by asking to trace the source of materials which ultimately all come from the Earth. The main point for this activity is to have students realize that if we see ourselves as separate from nature, how are we treating nature? What is our relationship with nature? Are we nature? Is nature us? Is this disconnection a possible cause for the environmental challenges in the world today? This activity lends itself well to teaching about Indigenous ways of knowing.

Sample 3 from Voice of the River Educator’s Guide

Do-it-Yourself, Local Watershed Education

How could you help your students learn the curriculum you need to teach in a meaningful way that connects them to the local watershed? In the study guide, you can pick from a variety of learning experiences that will accomplish these objectives. The lesson ideas below are described in more detail in the study guide.

• Drawn to the Water: Walk, bike, or take the bus to a local pond, stream, lake, or river regularly with your class either weekly, monthly, or seasonally. If you can’t do this in person, follow a live webcam or share photos or videos of your visits there. On-site, you can consider the following activities.
  – Nature Immersion Time: Invite your students to sit individually or in pairs and silently observe their surrounding landscape. They can focus on what’s near or far. Students will be in the present moment and fully aware. Aim to increase the time from five minutes to half-an-hour.
  – Watershed Soundscape Mapping: Students will listen to all the different sounds they hear from the place they are sitting. On a soundscape map, they will mark the sounds they hear and the time they hear it as it relates to their position. Afterwards, gather students and ask them to match their maps based on the sounds they have heard.
  – What’s Below the Surface: Using dip nets, students will catch macroinvertebrates and discover if the body of water in question is considered healthy based on the presence of tolerant or non-tolerant (to disturbance) species. This activity is described in more detail in the study guide to ensure the safety of both your students and the living things in the water and on the shore.
  – Flying to the Headwaters: If you can’t get to the source of a local river or stream by foot, bike, or bus, consider taking your students on a virtual journey on Google Earth (or another online App such as FatMap or Gaia). You could fly to the headwaters of the watershed you call home by starting at your school and then heading upstream until you reach the source of the water.
  – Calling the Watershed Community: Invite guests regularly (e.g., weekly) to meet with your students either outside in the watershed or at school to share their personal connection to the watershed. Who to invite? Reach out to a non-profit organization that engages in local environmental stewardship, the municipality who looks after clean drinking water and treatment of sewage, an Indigenous person, a local rancher or farmer, a local politician, a local fishing guide, a dam operator, a forester, or a long-time member of the community. Bringing in a range of perspectives will help students gain a deeper appreciation for the beauty of the watershed and a better understanding of the challenges in the watershed they call home.

My love affair with rivers started out small and grew over time. At first, I was drawn to the beauty of the waters, but then I witnessed the impacts on the waterways by human activities. Now, I want to improve watersheds’ health, and, for me, this includes teaching watershed ed. Ultimately, my hope is that if we all connect our students to their local river and watershed, they may develop their own love affairs with their local places and then want to start taking care of these important sites. The vision is to re-establish healthy watersheds across the world.

Let’s all be the Voice FOR the River. 🙂

Sanne Van Der Ros (B.Ed, MA) is an educator for Parks Canada at the Palisades Stewardship Education Centre in Jasper, Alberta, Canada and is often found paddling on the local rivers and lakes in the Athabasca River watershed. Her 20+ years of experience as an environmental and outdoor educator, wilderness canoe guide, and schoolteacher across Canada have inspired her learning philosophy: place-connected, hands-on, and experience-based. Sanne’s passion to connect people to their local watershed inspired her research project Voice of the River for her master’s degree in Environmental Education and Communication at Royal Roads University. This film, featuring student voices during an educational canoe trip, was given honourable mention at the 2021 Waterwalker Film Festival.