Tuesday the 16th

Today we got after it in the field! We met up with Jordan Matherly, Casey Flanagan, and Brian Crossley to help them check on the progress of one of their projects. We went to Chamokane creek to see how their weirs had been doing at trapping sediment. In the past, the portion of the creek that we were working with was dredged and straightened. They are trying to help raise the stream back to its historical level where it would've flooded the plain we were on and slowed down that water. They said that when there is a heavy rain or snow event that the creek will flow very hard and lower sections can be impacted or even get washed out. We used a transit and measuring pole to check the elevation of the stream, and they had placed fixed points in the ground when the project started to have a consistent point to base elevation from.

They also mentioned that usually a project like this could be harder to achieve if the landowners weren't growing pasture for cows to graze and instead were doing something like alfalfa. Alfalfa wouldn't survive a flood event, while the grasses they had for pasture would love the extra sediment and water. After we had finished helping with this project, we later met with Warren Seyler. Warren gave us an extremely knowledgeable presentation on the history of the Spokane tribe, their people, and their lands. I felt very lucky to get to hear from him, as I know there are very few people with such a good grasp of this history. I wrote down all of the youtube videos he had mentioned and many events that I'd really like to know more about and dive into.

After our presentation we came back to our campgrounds and finished our soil analysis that we had started around lunch. Juan helped us all run the tests smoothly and we were able to get the data we need. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Wellpinit and the Spokane tribe has been extremely accommodating to us. We really appreciate the hospitality and are very thankful to be able to spend time here and learn from everyone!