Healthy Waters Institute

The mission of the Healthy Waters Institute is to forge a lifelong, caretaking bond between students and their local watershed ensuring the health of Oregon's rivers and streams for generations.

The Healthy Waters Institute (HWI), is the educational program developed by Oregon Trout (www.ortrout.org) that is implemented locally through a partnership with the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council. HWI is a research and teaching institute working to provide Oregon students with the knowledge of their local land and water. The institute is dedicated to developing generations of knowledgeable and motivated young citizens through active watershed education opportunities.

HWI invites students to participate in discovery-based watershed experiences through a dynamic toolkit of education programs that are directly linked to current innovative curricula and state mandated learning standards for Oregon schools. Our toolkit of question-based educational programs includes:

Salmon Watch: High school and middle school students are invited to learn about fish and healthy fish habitat along the beautiful Metolius River.

Hometown Waters: Middle school students explore the unique hydrology and geology of the Upper Deschutes Watersheds.

1000 Drops: Elementary students discover the cycle and path of water as it flows through Central Oregon.

Independent Projects: High school students are inspired to design a project to examine a watershed issue or concept through their own creative research, artwork, or exploration.

HWI supports students in stewardship projects by providing them with opportunities and resources to develop and implement student-driven watershed projects that address authentic community needs. By uniting education, community, and local stewardship, HWI takes an active role in cultivating the next generation of informed watershed stewards.

Coordinating creekside projects for students to explore their local watershed through authentic, experiential, place-based learning experiences, the Healthy Waters Institute seeks to offer the ingredients for students to develop their own unique sense of place for the Deschutes River, Tumalo Creek, Whychus Creek, the Little Deschutes River and more. By working collaboratively with teachers, school administrators, and community partners, HWI gives students the opportunity to engage in hands-on activities outside of the classroom walls and discover fundamental concepts through exploration through a variety of disciplines with an overarching watershed theme. Participating teachers are well supported with curricular materials, high quality workshops, trainings, and small grants for outdoor education that best suit their teaching strategies and methodology.

Since 2005, we have helped thousands of students learn more about the rivers and streams that meander through Oregon. Sisters High School students sketched streamside vegetation on Whychus Creek, High Lakes Elementary 4th graders hand built their own muddy watersheds in Shevlin Park, REALMS students wrote and published poetic musings about the Tumalo watershed, students from Pine Ridge Elementary peered into the watery depths of Elk Lake, and LaPine Middle School students enthusiastically restored riparian vegetation to Tumalo Creek. The students of HWI better understand our home waters by wading in them, restoring them, and crafting artwork alongside them.

The Upper Deschutes Watershed Council is the local partner for the implementation of the HWI in Central Oregon. Of the four HWI projects throughout Oregon, the program in the Upper Deschutes is the only program on the east side of the Cascades.