The Blanco Ranger District is in it's 17th year of celebrating World Migratory Bird Day with Meeker School District. During the month of May, students in 4th-7th grade were presented a PowerPoint presentation on this year's theme 'Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution'. Each section of each grade (12 sections) were then taken on a two hour birdwatching field trip around Meeker and to the White River and local parks. During these trips, students identified 20-34 species of birds by sight and sound. The fourth grade class participated in a coloring contest with prizes awarded including posters, T-shirts, field guides and cloth bags. In addition, stand-out students were awarded steel straws and posters. Every classroom in Meeker Elementary and Barone Middle Schools received a 2019 poster.
In addition, the Meeker High School Biology group participated in permanent point counts at locations within pinyon/juniper, sagebrush and mountain shrub vegetation community types with Blanco Range/Wildlife employee Mary Cunningham. These counts ocurred on Thursday mornings before school from 6:30-8:00 AM. The fresh donuts from the Meeker Bakery helped to boost attendance! This same group tracked SnoTel data from NRCS and were treated to a field trip earlier in the spring with an NRCS hydrologist who explained and demonstrated how the water content in the snowpack is determined.