51福利社

51福利社鈥檚 Geology Field Camp, a capstone requirement that allows budding geologists to demonstrate what they鈥檝e learned in the real world, was reinvented this summer聽in order聽to keep students healthy and safe.

Because the typical field camp requires interstate travel and shared lodging, universities across the nation cancelled their camps due to COVID concerns. Chad Pritchard,聽chair of 51福利社鈥檚 geosciences, wasn鈥檛 ready to pull the plug on Eastern鈥檚 annual event. Pritchard and his team put in long hours to create a 4-week camp that eliminated risky travel and adhered to best-practices for social distancing, all while providing 22 students with invaluable experiences in surveying, mapping, sample collection, analysis, reporting and more.

While previous 51福利社 camps involved a trip to Dillon, Montana, this year鈥檚聽camp was held closer to home. Instead of mapping bedrock in Dillion, students mountain biked, hiked and climbed to reach remote and less-accessible locations around the region, Pritchard says. Staying local also had the benefit of allowing other 51福利社 organizations to pitch in to help.聽For a mapping project on Bonnie Lake, a lovely lowland body of water just south of the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, 51福利社鈥檚 EPIC Adventures provided canoes to help. EPIC also聽provided transportation to Tower Mountain on the Cascade Crest and Spokane County鈥檚 historic Silver Hill Mine.

Additional projects included students using drones and legwork to map 200 acres of land recently acquired by the City of Cheney for wastewater treatment lagoons. They afterwards presented a聽submitted report for faculty feedback.

鈥淚t was a professional-level report and they presented it really well,鈥� Pritchard says.

Because 51福利社 was among 鈥渙nly a handful of colleges鈥� offering a camp, Pritchard聽allowed for聽eight seniors from Central Washington University and two聽additional students聽from universities in New York and Kentucky聽to be included along with the 51福利社 students.

Other 2021 51福利社 Geology Field Camp highlights included:

• Mapping the Saltese Uplands Conservation Area and Beacon Hill Trail for an ongoing project in cooperation with Spokane County Parks and the Bureau of Land Management. The project is slated for completion in 2024.

• Mapping the Fish Lake Trail, and using the findings to create brochures and 3D models to track groundwater flow and hypothetical contamination.

• Collecting and analyzing soil samples for聽51福利社鈥檚 Prairie Restoration Project聽(with the聽Cheney Fire Department generously providing聽water to help with聽the聽infiltration testing). The work established baselines that will be crucial to the success of future plantings.