MISSOULA — Willard Alternative High School students helped out at an almost decade-long restoration project at the site of the old Rattlesnake Dam.
The field trip on Tuesday, May 14, was a part of the school’s river education course.
Each spring quarter at the Willard Alternative High School, social studies teacher Carolyn Grimaldi and English teacher Matthew Quinlan lead a course on river education.
Students learn about the watershed and human interaction with Missoula’s rivers. They participate in fly fishing, they read “A River Runs Through It” and learn from published authors how to write about nature.
Quinlan and Grimaldi partner with various community organizations for the course, including the City of Missoula, Clark Fork Coalition, Trout Unlimited, Fish Wildlife and Parks, Montana River Guides and White Water Rafting Rescue Institute.
On Tuesday, they took a field trip to the site of the old Rattlesnake Dam, where they helped Missoula Parks and Recreation and the Clark Fork Coalition in their efforts to restore the area.
The group pulled mullein, knapweed, and invasive mustard in the upland section of the area. Pulling the weeds is important for the survival of native plants, according to Missoula Parks and Recreation Maintenance Technician Assistant Sasha Victor.
Since the Rattlesnake Dam was removed in 2020, volunteers and restoration crews have planted 20,000 native plants.
“It's so exciting to see it from being leveled ground, where there's nothing growing there, to having a full suite of species and having a healthy ecosystem,” Victor says. “You can see the deer come through. We have birds… So just kind of seeing the wildlife move back into this area and be able to utilize it the way that it maybe traditionally was used by wildlife is very exciting.”
For Grimaldi, the afternoon was an opportunity to connect with her students outside of the classroom.
Due to budget cuts in Missoula County Public Schools, Grimaldi’s position at Willard High School is being removed, so it’s likely the river education class will not return next year.
“From an educational standpoint, place-based education is important because… sometimes I think they get overwhelmed by global issues, and by looking at your own familiar space and almost making them look at it as outsiders, I think, then allows them to connect to bigger issues,” Grimaldi says.
Missoula Parks and Recreation often holds volunteer events. Information on how to get involved can be found at https://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/209/Get-Involved.
