A-6 VISIT TO SANTOSH WILDLIFE REFUGE
SANTOSH
by George
First, we went to the wetlands. We studied soil and saw a few frogs and even some minnows. We calculated how the soil was doing and the nutrients in it.
Then we went to the open water. We studied what the water would be like polluted and to see if it could support fish.
Next was our forrest hike. We saw a rabbit and some cool bugs. Then we looked at two beaver lodges. They were neat.
After that we saw an otter den. As we were hiking back to rained. Also some of our classmates had to go home because they got stung by wasps.
Other than that our field trip was great. I hope you have enjoyed reading this.
SANTOSH
by Debbie
Have you ever been on a field trip to Santosh Wildlife? Well, If you haven't maybe you should. I'm going to tell you about my field trip to Santosh Wildlife. Well, when I went there, there was four stations. One and two station were called forest and the edge. Another station was called wetlands, and finally the fourth one was called open waters. I'm going to tell you about these stations.
Well, in the forest and the edge there was the hike. My group and I walked over through black berry bushes and we walked through all that just to get on a road. When we were on the road we could hear a river or at least water nearby. We also spotted a woodpecker and a blue jay. The habitat is different when you are in the middle of the forest or at the edge of the forest. There are blackberry bushes, more trees, and a whole lot more animals. When you are at the edge of the forest you don't have very much of anything only like rocks, dirt, and few trees. When we were at the edge of the forest we made a satellite. We put stakes in the ground into a square which was North, East, South, West, and smack down in the middle. We then had a washer hanging from a cup which was like a satellite we would go and walk from the starting straight into the middle either putting + or - down on the record station. Both of these stations were really fun.
The next station I'm going to tell you about is the wetlands. The first thing we did was sample dirt. We sampled the place where it is not wetlands, it has sand for dirt, but the wetlands has clay dirt or at least that's what it feels like. Well, the plants that grow at the wetlands. They are cattails, long grass, and tiger tails. But on the dry land there was only grass and sand. We took the tape measure and measured from one flag to the other. It was 50 to 60 inches long. That is all we did there.
The last station we went to was open waters. This station was my favorite. First we sampled the water to see how warm the water was. The water was 60 degrees F. which is pretty cold. Then we caught fish. We had to put them on the little drainer. All the water drained out and there was fish hopping around. We had to pick them up with paint grushes which was hard, but fun. We caught about 20 to 30 fish. These fish were called bass. Then we talked about D.O. or at least only the definition. D. O. means desolved oxygen. Cool, huh? Well, that's all we did at that station.
Well, I hope you had fun learning the stations: forest and edge, wetland, and open waters, and how cool Santosh Wildlife Center was. If you ever came to Petersen Elementary you go to this field trip.
SANTOSH
by Chance
When we got to school we went into class and found out who we are with. Then we got on the bus and it only took like fifteen to twenty minutes to get there. When we got off the bus we hiked to a gazebo and put our lunches in the gazebo, then a woman told us the rules and what place to go to.
The first place we went is to the Open Water class and I got to get the water sample for our group. Then the helper put glue in the water. Then he put paint in the water, the paint would color the oxygen. After that he put a chemical in that made all the oxygen float to the top.
The next class we went to was Willow Forest/Wildlife. The first thing we did was go to a small cleared area with logs to sit on. I had to put a thermometer in the ground. Then she gave us some magnifying glasses to find some bugs. Then we went on a hike, and we saw an otter's home. We walked a little more and saw a beaver dam, and there was a king fisher flying around the ponds.
Then we ate lunch in the gazebo and met with our next instructor to see what we're doing.
The next class we went to was the wetland study. In this class we got a soil sample from the wetland area. Then we tried to match the color of the soil to a color on a chart.
The last class we went to was the satellite tracking class. In this class we looked at maps of Columbia County and tried to find where we were. Then we put wooden stakes in the ground. We had to put them in a 50ft. perimeter in a square. On our third stake someone stepped in a bee hive and Josh, Jolene, and her dad went back to school.
When we were ready to go we got our stuff and went to the bus. Then we sat down in our spots and drove off to school.
SANTOSH
by Evan
On our trip to Santosh we did a lot of things. We did open water, edge, and wetland.
First we did open water. We took an oxygen test by taking a water sample and putting certain chemicals in the sample. Then we put it through a machine and it told us how much oxygen was in the water.
Second we went on a hike and saw beaver lodges. There were three of them.
Third, we did soil samples and checked for clay and wetland soil.
I had fun at Santosh with open water, the hike, and wetlands.
SANTOSH
by Libby
Last week we went on a field trip to Santosh Wildlife. On this fieldtrip we went to open water, the edge, and wetlands.
While we were at the open water, we took tests for PH. We also took some water samples, but the funnest one was looking for fish. We used paint brushes to look through weeds and grass.
Our next station was the wetlands. At this stations wer did two things. First we took some soil samples to see if it was wetland soil. Second we found out names of some of the wetland plants such as cheat-grass. I think that's a strange name.
Finally our last station was the edge. At the edge we did a bad thing: we put a stake in a hornets nest we didn't know was there. That was scary. After that we used a GPS to do satellite positioning. That was fun. Our last thing was a 50' plot we found the exact place where we were standing. That was fun.
This trip was awesome. It was cool because of the open water, wetlands, and the edge. Have you ever been to Santosh?
SANTOSH
by Samantha
Hi. Have you ever been to Santosh? Last week my class went on a field trip to Santosh wildlife area. We saw a great blue heron, and went to a lot of stations.
Once we got there, my group put our lunches in this big gazebo, then we headed off to the first station, where we measured 50 ft. square. After we did that, we saw a big white spider. It was huge! Then, we had to find the center of the square by measuring 25 ft. into the center.
By the time we recorded all that, we heard the duck whistle blow, so that meant we needed to go to the next station. The next station was where we walked down to the river and experimented how much of something there was in the water. Right after we started, it stared to drizzle. Then it started to rain harder, and harder, until it was pouring down rain. Our guide/leader person who was teaching us yelled, "OK! Run back to the gazebo as fast as you can!" It was a long way back to the gazebo. When we got back we were soaking wet.
After the rain stopped, we had just enough time for one more station. We chose the hike. Before we started, we each got a pair of binoculars. We started the hike. We walked and walked, but we didn't see any wildlife. Then we saw it--standing in a lake was a great blue heron! But then, someone made a sudden noise and it flew away.
That was my class's field trip to Santosh. We saw a great blue heron and went to several stations. I had a lot of fun. I was soaking wet. Have you been to Santosh?