MARYSVILLE — Area eighth-graders got a hands-on lesson on the importance of trees to the local environment, thanks to the city of Marysville and the Stilly-Snohomish Fisheries Enhancement Task Force.

Cedarcrest Middle School science teacher Kirby Schaufler escorted 122 of his eighth-grade students to the Northpointe and Strawberry Fields Athletic parks in Marysville on March 1 and 2 as part of the Task Force’s Tree Connections program. Task Force Education Specialist Abby Kuranz explained that the Tree Connections program taught the eighth-graders about the recreational, economic and ecological benefits of trees through lessons that started in the classroom.

“The students then put their newfound knowledge to the test by traveling to Northpointe Park to make recommendations to the city of Marysville on where to add or replace trees,” Kuranz said. “Their recommendations will help improve wildlife habitat and water quality and to make Northpointe Park a more beautiful place to visit.”

After visiting Northpointe Park on the mornings of March 1 and 2, the student groups took trips to Strawberry Fields Athletic Park after lunch.

“What’s great about this experience is that they don’t often do a lot outdoors,” Schaufler said, as his students used GPS coordinators on the Strawberry Fields Athletic Park’s frisbee golf course to record locations where trees could be planted to create new challenges and obstacles for players. “We have these parks and wetlands right in our backyard that many of them didn’t even know existed.”

Adam Benton, a surface water specialist with the city of Marysville, also led student groups through the tasks of measuring the temperature and turbidity of Quilceda Creek at Strawberry Fields Athletic Park.

“We’re looking at the water quality to determine how human interactions with the environment affect salmon runs in this stream,” Benton said. “More oxygen in the water means healthier salmon.”

Benton noted that trees’ roots feed oxygen into salmon streams and prevent erosion which clouds the waters. To that end, the eighth-graders planted 95 trees along Quilceda Creek over two days, with the help of city of Marysville Park Maintainer Allen Backstrom.

“They’re learning that they can enhance streams to better serve as fish habitats,” Backstrom said. “I hope this inspires some of them to take up the field of horticulture, whether they work with wild plants or in landscaping.”

“We learned all about temperature changes in the water and how they affect the salmon, and how trees give the salmon shade that helps them cool down,” said Megan Uhler, an eighth-grader at Cedarcrest Middle School. “We also learned that you should wash your car on your lawn instead of on your driveway, because the grass helps filter the water before it feeds into streams.”

“Thanks to these trips, some of these students might be seeing career fields in ecology that they’d never even though of before,” Schaufler said.