Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The South Santiam Watershed Council’s new education coordinator has a lot of ideas to keep local students busy.
Mike Vernon, 34, has succeeded Angela Clegg, who went to work in the city planning office last year. Vernon has finished his first Outdoor School for Sweet Home sixth-graders and an Outdoor School for Lebanon. He’s also been busy getting to know the nine members of the Youth Watershed Council.
“I’m really stoked to get to work in a small community like this,” Vernon said. “I’m so impressed with the high school students.”
Since coming to work in Sweet Home, he’s been seeing them recognized for their active roles around the community, including VIP recognition at the annual Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet for Sarah Hewitt.
Vernon grew up in the California Bay Area. He earned his master’s degree at Humboldt University, and did post-graduate work in dendrocrhonology, which is the study of tree rings, before moving to Oregon four or five years ago when his girlfriend went to Oregon State University to work on a master’s degree.
Vernon worked as a wildlife biology technician with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the Fern Ridge office outside Eugene. He also has worked in botany, forestry and biology with the U.S. Forest Service, OSU and the U.S. Parks Service. He and his girlfriend, who went to work for the Oregon Department of Forestry in Salem, live in Corvallis.
In California, Vernon was a park ranger at Muir Woods National Monument, north of San Francisco, working in a program that targeted under-served youths, many of whom lived within a mile of the ocean and never saw it. Through the outreach program, the Parks Service would introduce them to the nearby redwood forests.
“I think my job, basically with the Watershed Council, is to connect the youth to the system that we live in, to make students aware that they are part of this ecosystem,” Vernon said.
He helps youths connect how choices humans make impact local water resources.
Youth Watershed Council members hear lectures and also complete hands-on projects around the area, taking cues from the parent organization, which works with property owners to restore the South Santiam Watershed.
The council also offers longer-term opportunities. Vernon is busy trying to plug into the Forest Service, which has been taking an interest in recruiting more locally and is offering internships for local students with the biology, wildlife, fish and timber staff.
“We’ve got a lot of cool stuff coming up,” he said. The Youth Watershed Council will participate in the collection of pollinators for researchers.
Oregon probably has more than 500 species of bees, Vernon said. Some of them don’t even have a name. He has connected with the Oregon Bee Project, which is a partial citizen science project to collect the bees and basic information about where they are found.
Vernon also is interested in the western pond turtle, he said. It’s a sensitive species under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act. A local landowner has some of the turtles on an 80-acre property.
The Youth Watershed Council will get involved in monitoring and observing them and collecting data about the animals, Vernon said. The information collected will be submitted to scientists studying and assessing the turtles.
He is continuing to strike up conversations with area property owners to develop restoration projects, Vernon said. Among projects is ivy removal on a Holley property in collaboration with the Calapooia Watershed Council.
The Youth Watershed Council will participate in Salmon Watch in the fall, he said, and the Watershed Council recently spent $5,000 to buy 12 wetsuits that is allowing the Youth Watershed Council members and other high school students to snorkel the rivers.
“There’s a lot of creative freedom in this job,” Vernon said.
He loves recreation on public lands, and Sweet Home is on the doorstep, he said. A snowboarder, he spent the weekend at Hoodoo.
Vernon said he’s enjoyed working in Sweet Home.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting more and more integrated,” he said.
Numerous businesses have been involved in putting on the Outdoor School, such as Radiator Supply House, which provided pellet stoves to keep children warm,
“You get more of that in small towns.”
Anyone interested in the Youth Watershed Council may contact Vernon at (541) 367-5564 or email him at [email protected].