People of the Big River 2025 - Raquel Sanchez Perez

  People of The Big River Location: Ben Harris Campgrounds Day 13   Today was pretty much our last day of science and outside activities. We got to wake up a little later than usual since we were going to finish some of our tests for our water samples right away in the morning after breakfast. We all stained our last slides and left them to dry, after that we had a quick lunch and went down the road to the Walla Walla River Hatchery. Here Thomas Tallbull who is the hatchery manager gave us a tour of the facility, and he showed us all of the different parts where the fish were kept. They were little ones and some full-grown adults. He told us about how some get diseases and how they try to treat them, but it doesn’t always work, but they do their best so that most of them have a chance once they’re released into the wild. It was really cool to see, and it was so crazy how high tech the facility was; I have never seen anything like it. After seeing the fish hatchery, w...

  People of The Big River Location: Harris Park Campgrounds Day 12 Today we did a ton of stuff, we had breakfast, packed lunch and headed off to meet Gail Redberg. Gail runs a native plant nursery. She showed us all of the things she grows there from trees to shrubs and smaller plants. Some grow berries others the bark is used medicinally, and some are just super great because they grow big and provide shade for animals. The reason why the nursery was started was because the fisheries program at Umatilla needed some native vegetation to put along the river. They did this so that the plants would provide shade for the bugs and critters that thrive in cold water, in hopes that they would live within the river so the fish would be able to eat them and also thrive in the bettered environment. After that Gail said that they began to expand and find a ton of varied plants to grow. Not only do these go out in the natural environments but now other people within the community are buy...

  People of The Big River Location: Crane Prairie Creek Campgrounds Day 11   Day eleven was another travel day and we were trying to hustle because it was going to be another super long drive. I got up and I was pretty tired I think the exhaustion is catching up to me I can’t wait to sleep in my bed. I really didn’t want to pack up all my things, but we got it done. We left the camp like at 7:30 ish and we drove for about an hour maybe less and we went to see some obsidian in the national forest. It was super cool; we climbed up some stairs and the view was so pretty. Some of the bigger chunks of obsidian were so shiny it was really crazy to see how sharp some of them were. After that we hit the road again and we were in the car for like six hours. While driving through Oregon we got to see some more interesting things. Through some parts where there was a lot of long fields it made me feel homesick because it reminded me of South Dakota. Especially since Dr. Schuster ...

  People of The Big River Location: Crane Prairie Creek Campgrounds Day 9   Today we got to spend the day with some members of the Sisters ranger district. We met Alex Enna who mentioned that he has worked in many different things from nonprofits to fighting fire. He studied biology during his undergrad and also got a masters in in forestry. He’s been working with the forest service for a long time. We also got to meet Christine Mayor who has also worked for the forest service for some time, and she has done a ton of different things. Like being in charge of volunteer groups, youth groups, and habitat restorations. She mentioned how she’s been working in some kind outdoor career for over 19 years. She also told us that she went to school for forestry but really liked learning about botany and soil science so she found her way to a career where she could do a bit of everything. The last person we got to meet was Liz Day; she went to school at the university of Delaware ...

 People of The Big River Location: Crane Prairie Creek Campgrounds Day 9 Today we headed out to Sand springs at Fort Rock in Oregon we got to spend the day with Marlo Fisher who works for the Deschutes Forest area. She took us to count a rare plant called the Pumice Moon Wort which is a tiny little plant that kind of looks like a fern and succulent crossed together. It was pretty sunny but thankfully also a pretty breezy day. Marlo first showed us a picture of how the plant looked like since none of us knew what it looked like. The area we were in was super dry and the ground was entirely covered in pumice. Marlow also showed us some of the other plants and Dr. Black told us about the sagebrush and how its roots, like many of the other plants in the area, have long roots that extend down deep into the earth to they are able to tap into the water especially in such dry areas. Marlow lined us all up so that we could look together for the plant. This was difficult for us because s...

 People of The Big River Location: Crane Prairie Creek Campgrounds Day 8 Day eight was another science day, we did a lot more things with our water samples and the bacteria that we’ve been growing. But today breakfast we got some really good stuff; Monet had eggs, bacon, and potatoes on the menu. It was so delicious and such a treat to get warm breakfast. We took a bit longer to enjoy our meal before Dr. Black and Monet left to do everyone’s laundry, which we were all excited for since it’s been cold and a lot of our warmer clothes had gotten dirty the first couple of days. After they left, we began working with Dr. Schuster on getting more bacteria inoculated and he also had a few more test for us to do today. We began by grabbing our bio paddles from previous days to see if any new growth had come up. For my samples not a lot was going on except for the one from Swamp creek, so Kyal let me borrow one of his samples so that I could do all of the different tests with everyone...

People of The Big River Location: Crane Prairie Creek Campground Day 7 Day seven was another travel day, we all got up super early so we could get a head start on packing all of the campground things and our lunches as well as having breakfast. I realized that on travel days I can’t really sit and eat because I get really anxious that I’m not going to finish on time or that I’ll forget something of mine. So, what I’ve been doing is just packing myself an extra pb & j so I can eat it on the road. Anyways, we got everything all packed and loaded up, which I think we’ve been getting faster at. We hit the road, and it was a loooong drive, I think they said something like 10 hours from Wellpinit to our next campground within the Deschutes National Forest. It was pretty ok though because we got to talk to Dr. Schuster some more and we had more service, so we were able to watch shows and play music. Everyone was in and out of naps in our car but other than that the majority of the c...

  People of The Big River Location: Wellpinit Fair Grounds Day 6 Day six we got to stay on the campgrounds and do all kinds of things with our bacteria that we collected. We all had breakfast as usual, and we spent the majority of the day with Dr. Schuster learning about the methodology of why we’re taking the samples and how to do it properly. Some of what we wrote down for our methodology section which we are including on a poster that we also have to put together for our class include. Collecting 50 ml water samples at each site. Next, while using aseptic techniques to make sure that everything is kept sterile. We measured environmental parameters like testing for pH, nitrates, and we measured water temperature. We also inoculated the bacteria on general media (yellow) NUT - TTC molecules or pigments that stain red if there is fecal matter found. As well as selective media Mackokely agar (red) which breaks down complex sugars and allows growth of gram-negative bacteria and...

  People of The Big River Location: Wellpinit Fair Grounds Day 5 Day five was another early day I got up and it was so cold especially since I went to sleep with my hair wet (very bad idea, never again, what was I thinking). Again, with our morning routine of breakfast, getting ready and packing lunch. Today we got to measure the health and potential growth of a creek running through the reservation and off of it onto a member of the community’s land. We got to use a special tool to figure out how deep the creek has cut into the land and the tech professionals that we were with for the day explained to us that a healthy creek is supposed to spread through the plains and valleys rather than cutting through them making them deeper. That was really interesting because it was a spot a group that took this class previously had helped out with a different part of that project, so it was cool for their instructors to see the growth and changes. However, I think the best part of the ...

  People of The Big River Location: Wellpinit Fair Grounds Day 4 Day four of our two-week trip and today was a travel day. We woke up and we had to pack everything up again to move on to our next site. Luckily, I packed up all my personal things the night before, so I just had to wake up get breakfast and pack my lunch for the day. The night before I stayed up talking with my tent mate Yoleth. We were talking about music and some of the people we were missing since we didn’t really have cell reception at our last campsite to text our loved ones. After getting everything put away and secured to head out, we were told that we would stop at the University to swap out the incubator we had brought to inoculate our water samples we've been collecting from the different sites. After that we started our journey to the next location. At each of the four locations we are collecting water samples for our own projects with Dr. Schuster and Dr. Black. However, the team that put together o...

  People of The Big River Location: Bird Creek … Day 3 Another busy day at the camp, day three we started out early. We woke up and had breakfast and packed up our lunches. Luckily, I had already packed my bag the night before, so it was just a matter of having breakfast and doing morning chores and I was set. Today I was in charge of dishes which wasn’t too bad. Dr. Black said we did a pretty good job, and we were early to meet up with everyone leading us in our project. Today we were privileged enough to have an opportunity to work on Yakama Nation land. We got to meet some members of the tribe who have done all kinds of work in the area we were around. We also met people working with the tribe that have been there for a variety of years. We met Doug Olney Who shared with us that he used to work in timber management/ harvest, and Doug is a member of the Yakama tribe. We also met John Washines who has been a fish tech for 12 years with the tribe and he also told us that he h...

 People of The Big River Location: Bird Creek … Day 2  Today we got up, put together all of the supplies for breakfast and also made lunches. I was on breakfast crew today, so I had to wake up earlier to set everything up. We had cereal, bananas, coffee and tea. I had a little of everything with a peach tea which was really good. We also set everything out for lunch which was sandwich stuff as well as snacks and fruit. after having breakfast and packing ourselves some lunch we cleaned everything up and packed our bags with our science and shower supplies. After collecting our samples and information from the rivers we were going to come into town to upload things, charge up devices and respond to messages since we don't have any service at the campground. We also were going to get the chance to shower which we've been told will be a privilege closer to the end of the two weeks. As for the collection of our creek samples, we went to two locations and learned to use most of the ...

  People of The Big River Location: Bird Creek … Day 1 The first day went by super fast, we arrived at the school and started out with lab techniques and learning how to stain bacteria so we can observe them with the microscope. It was really interesting, and I am excited to do a whole lot more over the next two weeks. After that we prepped everything, we needed to leave and loaded everything up. We have so many things, which is really nice, we’re very lucky to have experienced people. We got to our campsite and set up all of the things we needed for dinner, and everyone helped put everything together. We split up into teams, some helped cook dinner while others organized equipment. We were getting acquainted with the rhythm of the camp learning where all of the basic equipment is and where all of the dishes, food, and other items we might need while being out. We had dinner which was hamburgers, pasta salad, and tortilla chips. To drink cherry lemonade, I helped with this, (...