MATTAWA — Wahluke Junior High science teacher Mike Bosko’s background paid some dividends this year.

Bosko worked in stream ecology and software before he became a teacher, and would sometimes have college students intern for him. Now as a teacher, he offers junior high kids a similar opportunity, bringing groups of students to camps where they learn things like how to electroshock fish and work on stream models.

“I like to get kids outside,” Bosko said.

At first, Bosko would take nine students at a time out for the day to learn about stream ecologies. A couple of summers ago, he and some fellow teachers decided to turn the day trips into three-day, two-night camps during the summer. They partnered with professors at Central Washington University, allowing the junior high school students access to college students.

In 2018, the Yakama Nation Fisheries put wood back into streams to help improve the habitat for fish. The students in Bosko’s internship program had been wanting to do their own study, so Bosko guided them to a study involving one of the streams that would be receiving wood.

“One hundred years ago, the area had logging and mining,” Bosko said. “When they took the wood out, they put the logs behind dams. They would blast the dams and they (the logs) would shoot downstream.”

This method of moving logs straightened out the streams. In the past 10 to 20 years, wood has been removed from streams to make it easier for salmon to go upstream, resulting in a loss of fish habitat.

“We’re starting to put wood back in,” Bosko said. “There are some big projects. We’re seeing an improvement in fish habitats.”

The addition of the wood has also decreased the amount of flooding that occurs further downstream.

Bosko’s team specifically studied Indian Creek, between Teanaway River Road and the North Fork of the Teanaway River. Before the wood was put in, they took the measurements of the stream above and below where the wood was going to go.

In 2019, they went back again to measure the stream and to see if there was a difference.

“Unfortunately, there was not a whole lot of snow,” Bosko said. “We didn’t see any major spring runoff. We’re waiting for a bigger water event to happen.”

When water hits the logs in the stream, it spreads out across the flood plain. This lowers the temperature of the water and adds sinuosity, or curvature, to the stream, causing the water to slow down.

Bosko’s students found that in spite of a lack of substantial runoff, the stream above the added wood had increased in sinuosity. The portion of stream below the wood remained basically the same.

Last spring, Bosko’s students presented their initial measurements at SOURCE, an annual conference that allows college students the opportunity to present their research for judgment.

For Bosko, the internship isn’t about making scientists out of his students. It is an opportunity for the students to take their learning beyond the classroom and into the natural world.

“My goal is to get them outside and to look at the world around them,” Bosko said. “If they want to be a scientist, great. This is something they can put on their resume or college application.

“This is a great group of kids,” Bosko continued. “The remaining five are amazing kids. They’re driven. It’s neat to see how they’ve grown up through this whole thing.”