WAHKIAKUM COUNTY – The Columbia Estuary Environmental Education Program (CEEEP) has received word they have received a grant from the Community Salmon Fund for $37,800 to fund high school students, their teacher and Dr. Rob Stockhouse for a project to remove Japanese knotweed from Birnie Creek in Cathlamet.

The project is sponsored by the Wahkiakum Community Foundation in partnership with schools, funders and agency volunteers.

This is a continuation of the original Birnie Creek project the FFA students did in 2000 to build a fish ladder at the mouth of the creek. Under the original guidance of John Doumit and Jeff Rooklidge, the program has grown and projects continue with small groups of students working with individual teachers on independent projects, all depending on grant funding. Applications are currently being submitted to various funders to support these projects, as well as a project in Naselle.

During the 2007-08 school year, Dr. Stockhouse is on contract with the Foundation to develop curriculum in the Naselle/Grays River and the Wahkiakum School Districts.

He is currently working with first graders in Naselle and the seniors for their project. He also is in the field weekly with Jeff Rooklidge’s Environmental Education Class where they just finished planting 450 trees on the Duck Creek site where they built a fence last summer. Students in the summer program qualify for college science credit at Pacific University where Dr. Stockhouse is still on faculty.

For more information, Rob Stockhouse can be contacted at 360-560-3785.