Our Future for Watershed Protection!                                               

By Tracie Kirkham 

March 26, 2004

Who’s Tracks? And where are they heading?  Nicole Gagstetter teaches students about wildlife tracking and shows them how to determine the animal’s direction of travel. 
School children from the Salt Lake Valley are learning about their Salt Lake City Watershed (i.e. their drinking water!) by snowshoeing in spectacular Big Cottonwood Canyon. This is a great place to start since it’s the headwater area of our drinking water source, and the largest contribution of surface water to the drinking water system. Sixty percent of our drinking water comes from the combination of surface water from City Creek, Parleys, and Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons.

Getting kids into the outdoor canyon classroom allows them to experience the new skill of snowshoeing and to discover how a healthy ecosystem can result in clean water for plants, wildlife, aquatic life, and people, too. Group leaders craft their snowshoe tour by using a main theme such as “watershed”. While on the trail, the kids learn about beavers, wildlife tracks, tree species, birds, habitat, public lands, and their drinking water.  Tour leaders, then, encourage students to make the connection between each piece of the ecosystem puzzle and tie it back to the main “watershed” theme.     

Youngster learning to walk in snowshoes.
Patrick Nelson, director of the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation, with support from the Department of Public Utilities, the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, the Cottonwood Ski Areas, and a special grant from REI, has organized over a dozen snowshoe field trips this winter. That means that over 500 kids learned about protecting our drinking water and caring for the forest ecosystem. CCF is non-profit organization, whose goal is “Working to maintain and improve the environmental health of Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons through public education and stewardship.”  This mission can be accomplished by “utilizing a partnership based, non-advocacy platform, we strive to mitigate the impact high levels of recreation have on the beautiful backyard of the Salt Lake Valley”.

Not just for kids!

Cottonwood Canyons also offers Owling Walks, Weekend Snowshoe Tours, and organizes the Ski With A Ranger programs given at Alta, Brighton, and Snowbird.  For the summer season, at the Silver Lake Center in Big Cottonwood Canyon, they will offer wildflower walks, school field trips for watershed education, night hikes, and star watching.   Especially exciting will be the Wildflower Festival, held in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, July 30 through August 1.  For more information regarding activities, volunteer opportunities, and donations please visit their website www.cottonwoodcanyons.org, and to make a reservation to attend one of their tours, call the Public Lands Information Center at 466-6411.