Valley City (VCSU)  Valley City State University’s Prairie Waters Education and Research Center has received a $9,900 grant from the North Dakota Natural Resources Trust to start a wetlands education program for North Dakota high schools.

Prairie Waters will use the funding to create a standards-based education curriculum focusing on the types, function and importance of wetlands. The curriculum will use the Prairie Waters Education and Research Center in Kathryn, N.D., and incorporate seasonal field activities at Stoney Slough National Wildlife Refuge near Litchville, N.D.

Schools and teachers participating in the inaugural year of the wetlands program beginning this fall are Enderlin High School, Hatton High School, Linton High School, May-Port CG High School and Wahpeton High School.

A fall visit to the slough will include an introduction to the goals of the program and center on identifying wetland types and functions.

A winter trek will involve drilling through the ice, collecting a sample from the bottom of the slough, examining the sample under microscopes to identify aquatic organisms and discussing the ways these organisms survive winters in North Dakota. 

The spring trip will focus on wetland wildlife, including those species that use the slough as a permanent home and those that use it as a temporary migration stop. The role wetlands play in spring flood mitigation will also be covered.

Prairie Waters staff leading the program include Andre DeLorme, director (and chair of the science department at Valley City State University); Bonita Roswick, education specialist; and Louis Wieland, lab manager. Also helping coordinate the program is Jennifer Jewett of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Valley City Wetland Management District.