Slough School is here for schools!
Slough School is free environmental education for any K-12 school or program in our watershed, prioritizing Title I schools.
We deliver free lessons with models, maps, and materials in your classroom. We also provide free field trips to natural areas from Gresham to Kelley Point Park. Contact our Education Director, Jennifer Starkey, to find out how you can partner this school year!
Through hands-on classroom lessons and field study programs, Slough School engages students in learning about the history and ecology of the watershed. Students will learn about the living and nonliving parts of this urban ecosystem, as well as the human presence and effects on the area.
We help youth understand their connection to the land and water in their communities while giving them opportunities to be environmental stewards of the watershed.
Who We Serve
Slough School programming is free for all K-12 students who attend school within the Columbia Slough Watershed. Slough School helps fill the gap in environmental education opportunities by prioritizing Title I schools.
Curriculum
Our Slough School staff works to build relationships and connections with students. To achieve this, we typically offer multiple classroom lessons during the school year, including a 2-hour field trip to one of our watershed’s many natural areas.
This curriculum covers a wide range of environmental education topics, including animal habitats and adaptation, riparian zones, groundwater resources, water and soil chemistry, and flood control. We address questions like: What are the plants and animals that live here? How do the water and soil interact? How have people lived in this place? These lessons are adapted to fit seasonal changes, different grade levels, and specific areas of interest.
Classroom Lesson Slideshows
Hands-On Models
Field Trip Sites
Kelley Point Park
Kelley Point is where the Columbia Slough, Willamette, and Columbia River all meet in their journey toward the Pacific. This giant park has lots of walking trails, sandy beaches, and a canoe launch. At this site you can see bald eagles and osprey diving for fish, as well as restored salmon habitat.
Wilkes Creek Headwaters
This park used to be a holly farm, but today it’s a natural area with Wilkes Creek’s headwaters! This park has open fields with elderberry and leads up into a shady forest with a huge diversity of plants. This park is home to coyotes, owls, and a scud that is endemic to our watershed!
Columbia Children’s Arboretum
Columbia Children’s Arboretum is an amazing park created by students at Columbia School in the 60s & 70s. Visit trees collected from each state, apple trees, roses, and walk through the cottonwoods alongside the Slough.
Johnson Lake
Once a crystal-clear spring fed site of summer fun and fishing, Owens-Brockway glass plant began operating next to the lake and sure enough, it became a toxic mess. DEQ cleaned up a lot of it! Today we take care of the land and water here by planting native plants.
Whitaker Ponds Nature Park
This park has been a lot of things to a lot of people! In the 90s, Metro Councillor Ed Washington worked with local agencies and communities to turn this former dump into a natural area. Today it is home to turtles, beavers, great blue herons, and so many birds. It has a canoe launch, an observation dock, a trail loop, and a gazebo.
Gresham Stormwater Treatment Facility
Green and beautiful - with an important purpose - this 14-acre wetland was constructed to treat polluted water and provide a home to native plants and wildlife.
Salish Ponds Park
This City of Fairview park used to be gravel quarries. Today the quarries are two large ponds, stocked with fish by the city. Fairview Creek runs between the ponds on its journey north to Fairview Lake. This park is full of riparian wetland plants that make a habitat for dozens of species of birds, as well as river otters, beavers, and coyotes.
Southwest Community Park
Formerly a cattle farm, this site hosts Fairview Creek’s headwaters! This park has tall Douglas Firs and Western Red Cedars alongside wetland plant species, as well as big open fields.
Field Trip Activities
Learn Online
Can’t get out to the watershed? We have plenty of online resources for at-home learning. Check out our Slough School Online page for videos, coloring pages, identification guides, and more.
Questions? Get in Touch
Education Director
Jennifer Starkey
jennifer.starkey@columbiaslough.org