By David Whitman

Children are the key to long-term preservation of park resources. For 10 years Dinosaur National Monument has provided a summer Young Naturalist Program for local children 8–10 years of age. Through this program children experience nature firsthand and discover some of the interconnections in the natural world and their relationship to it. They contemplate the concept of community and how an ecosystem works. Finally they have the opportunity to use this information and their observations to predict outcomes for a variety of river management scenarios that affect several species of endangered fish and other natural resources at Dinosaur National Monument.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a biological opinion concerning the flow and temperature recommendations for the endangered native fish in the upper Green River: bonytail, razorback sucker, humpback chub, and Colorado pikeminnow. The Bureau of Reclamation is developing an environmental impact statement (EIS) to address the recommended change in water releases from Flaming Gorge Dam, which is upstream of Dinosaur National Monument on the Green River. The prospect of increasing springtime releases from the dam for the benefit of native fish is generating public concern and controversy. Sensitive issues include flooding of agricultural land, increasing mosquito populations, and impacts on power generation.

In 2000, interpreters at the monument changed the afternoon half of the Young Naturalist Program by taking the kids on a river trip. Each child is given an inner tube, life vest, and safety instructions to float down a flat-water portion of the Green River. The boys and girls are literally immersed in the habitat of the endangered fish. Interpreters guide them to a backwater where, under a permit from the Utah Wildlife Resources Division, they use collection equipment to temporarily capture and examine aquatic animals. They discover the benthic macroinvertebrates and small fish that comprise the bottom of the endangered fishes’ food chain. The group discusses predation by the Colorado pikeminnow and the endangered fish’s biology, particularly its need for spring floods, clean gravel bars, and backwater environments. Finally, interpreters pose the question, “If a dam were placed in the river, how would this affect the fish?” As a result of this directed discussion the children realize the importance of varied water releases from Flaming Gorge Dam to the survival of the native fish.

Why is this significant? At the end of the day these kids are tired but excited. Their parents commonly report in the post-activity evaluation that their children babbled about the water insects they found, the catfish they caught, the frog swimming in the aquarium. They see their children’s excitement and hear why some fish species might become extinct. Their 10-year-old becomes an “ambassador” for endangered native species.

Ten years from now when these “young naturalists” are voting, attending a new Green River EIS scoping meeting, or reading about how county commissioners want to fund a project that may affect fish, they will remember their day on the river and possibly become advocates for the fish. This important interpretive program is taking on this challenge one child and one household at a time.