Day 12: Barbara Frielander Arida, Pacific Aquaculture, Animal Furs, and Wolf Howling

It's our last full day of our trip! We woke up around 7:00 am and got ready for the day. We had a tribal elder named Barbara Frielander Arida come and speak to us about the importance of protecting our earth. She has been working with different agencies and departments for 45 years to help protect and conserve our earth. She spoke about problems such as radiation poisoning from Hanford, as well as uranium pollution in the Spokane area. We only had a short time with Barbara, but it was clear to our entire group that she possesses a wealth of knowledge when it comes to protecting our environment, and unlike some who sit back and watch horrible things happen, she fights for what she thinks is right, and will continue to fight for our earth, because if people like her don't, who will?

After Barbara's lecture, Rick Desautal met us at the Community Center and took us to Pacific Aquaculture, a steel head farm located in Nespelem. Once we arrived there, we heard from some of the employees about the process. Bill Clark (Pacific Aquaculture Site Manager) told us that at his two sites, they are able to raise 7-8 million pounds of steel head annually. The steel head are used for commercial use and will eventually end up being sold at places like Costco or Safeway. We were able to actually see the fish in the pens. They are separated into size. While looking at the larger fish, I noticed that many of them had deformities and all of them were injured from rubbing on the nets. I didn't want to be rude and as Bill, but I was wondering exactly what types of chemicals and antibiotics they give these fish to keep them "healthy" and how those chemicals and antibiotics are effecting the river. 

After the fish farm tour, we made our way back to the Community Center where Rick gave us a presentation of different animal furs that have been collected in the area. He had a large collection that included weasels, beaver, bobcats, lynx, cougars, bear, wolves, deer, elk, and many more. His presentation was extremely interesting  He went animal by animal and spoke a little bit of each. I will admit, I was extremely tired and found my eyelids drooping several times through his presentation, and apparently I wasn't the only one. I never fell asleep though. After his presentation concluded, we were supposed to do a GPS activity, but even Jessica was exhausted and some of the students wanted to do laundry, so we had about 4 hours of free time. Charlie, Jayla, Monet and I used it to take a nap. I just put my blanket in the shaded area of the grass and passed out. When I woke up I felt great. Charlie, Jayla, Monet and I were on dinner duty. We cooked up some Sloppy Jo's and mac'n'cheese. The water for the mac'n'cheese took way to long to boil and I barley had enough time to mix everything together before it was time to go. Some of us grabbed a bowl of mac'n'cheese to take on the road with us, and apparently it wad delicious. 

Rick took us up into the surrounding mountains to howl at the wolves in the area. I was a little bit afraid to be so near wolves. Rick assured us that the wolves were harmless and we should be more worried about the bears and cougars. Thanks Rick. Anyway, we stopped at a small campsite called Gold Lake, where Rick told us what to do once we got the howling site. When we finally arrived at the site, Rick informed us that he accidentally took us to the "Kill Site" instead of the "Rendezvous Site" but we could give it a try anyway. After Rick howled, he started giving some of us the chance to howl as well. First, he picked Jayla. She howled, with no reply. Then he asked me to howl. I didn't want to at first, because I wasn't feeling great but then I though, "How often to you get the chance to howl at wolves?" so I went for it. Unfortunately  I didn't get a reply either. A few more people attempted to get a response, but were unsuccessful. It would have been really cool to hear wolves howl back at us, but oh well. After the wolf howling experience, we headed back to camp. I was finally able to shower, eat some mac'n'cheese, and then headed to bed.