By Nuala Rego - Nabesna

Hi! My name is Nuala Rego, and I am a second-generation Alaskan here in the Interior between Mount Sanford and the Mentasta Mountains. I enjoy kayaking and swimming in the  Prince William Sound as well as spending time with my friends and family. 

This past summer I had the opportunity to participate in WISE’s Copper River Stewardship Program (CRSP), which helps kids learn about the different ecosystems in the Copper River watershed and surrounding  areas. WISE stands for Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment and they provide hands on science education opportunities in the Copper River country for both kids and adults. 

During the CRSP I met kids from all around the watershed and we did many interesting things in many interesting places. This year’s theme was invertebrates and what they can tell us about our watershed’s health. Our journey took us from Kenny Lake to Valdez to McCarthy to Whittier to Cordova and back to Valdez (across the Sound on a sailboat!).  

The learning strategies used by the instructors went hand in hand with the practical exercises. For example, we visited the Prince William Sound Science Center in Cordova and canoed the Alagnak River to collect water samples for microscopic invertebrates. The most common invertebrates we found were dragonfly and mayfly larvae (juvenile stage), along with scuds which look like small shrimp. We learned that various parts of rivers will have different kinds and amounts of invertebrates. The slough had many more invertebrates than the main channel, although the main channel was more fun to paddle.  

We also had to solve a 3D rope and metal puzzle that each person in the group had to move through without touching any of the ropes or going the same way. Another puzzle we had to find a route through a grid with only one person at a time looking at it. These showed us how  important it is to communicate with each other when trying to solve complex problems.  

One complex problem we learned about was the Exxon Valdez oil spill and why it is so  important to keep oil from getting loose in the water. The Exxon oil spread through the Prince  William Sound all the way to Kodiak Island and harmed many animals, plants, and economies in  our coastal communities. Today, oil runs over and under many of the Copper River watershed’s  rivers through the Trans-Alaska pipeline on its way to Valdez. The ideas the instructors presented  helped deepen my understanding of the many different relationships and ecosystems all around us.

 After this summer program, I have been able to grasp the big picture in so many ways. Poetry has always come to me spontaneously especially when I’m outside in nature. Writing it down, though, has always been tricky. This trip encouraged me to put my thoughts on paper.  

Afterward, I was able to reflect upon how it affected my writing and my experiences, and they  are both better because of all the great people we met and stories we heard. I liked writing in  nature, and am doing more of it. The leaders were very professional and the kids were fun to be  around. My innermost gratitude to those who helped make this program possible.

Where I’m From (Joe Hazelwood) 

I am from mistakes, 

From accidents and recognition. 

I am from oil spills. 

I am from clean-up crews. 

I remember the grating sound of metal and gushing oil and harming wildlife. 

I stand for taking responsibility, 

For my mistakes and trying to fix them. 

I am from creating new regulations. 

I apologize to the people of Alaska for my biggest mistake. 

I’m from the Exxon Valdez. 

And my name is Joe Hazelwood. 

Headwaters To Ocean 

I. 

The ageless mountains lay still, 

While seasons go by, spring, summer, fall. 

They tower, watching, sitting through the chill. 

For the mountains, time is a vassal. 

The silty rivers move fast with flow, 

Rapidly moving through spring, summer, fall. 

When they are covered with ice and snow 

It’s the land that sits and sits, waiting for it all. 

It’s the great, vast land that has thunder. 

It’s the forests where silence releases. 

It’s the beauty the tears me asunder. 

It’s the stillness that wills me to peace.  

II. 

The lonely lakes sit in the land, 

The creatures of the land visit the marge, 

Waiting for you to view, taking by the hand 

All lakes, some small, some large. 

We the salmon course up the rivers, then the streams, 

Swimming to our ancestral creeks. 

Some get caught, some arrive as if in dreams; 

One is lifted out to be devoured by beaks. 

The ones who survive finally die, completing their mission.

Dipnetters in a boat with a leak 

Lift us high in the sky with ambition. 

They will can us, in salts and sugar, 

Dry us in a three to one ratio. 

Eat us, not here but afar, 

In rain and sun and snow. 

We are the life blood that will continue. 

We span from Russia to Canada, O! we know! 

It will continue, through and through. 

Mallards and harlequins and redheads - 

These are the ducks of the North. 

Flying from Canada and eastern oyster beds, 

Migrating to the meres of the land of worth. 

III. 

Birds- ravens, eagles, and the wee chickadee; 

Sing in their home land, the Wild. 

Flourishing with no one near, free; 

Many people delight in them, especially a child. 

The creatures of the North, be there many, 

Watching, the land of Arctic, the land where things happen. 

Domestics like Dog, Kitty, Bunny, and Henny; 

Live here too, while their claws sharpen. 

Lurking at night Kitty kills the Sparrow; 

The poor bird’s bones are turned to marrow.