Students use classroom knowledge to help the environment

Camas/Washougal — Students from east county have been working with the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership to help the environment at Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge. As they have for the past 10 years of their involvement in the Estuary Partnership’s Outdoor Education Program, students from schools in Camas and Washougal are learning in the classroom about watersheds and other ecology topics as preparation before they dig into the dirt at the refuge. As part of the program, students plant trees, survey birds and help improve “critical riparian areas along Gibbons Creek and the Columbia River,” according to a press release. Volunteers from the community have also lent a hand at Steigerwald during ongoing work days. The final volunteer planting of the year was Nov. 15 and the next is set for Feb. 21. Learn more at www.estuarypartnership.org/get-involved/volunteering.