Bridging Science and Community: Engaging Youth in Delta Conservation through the Spinning Salmon Program is designed to enhance scientific understanding and engagement among underrepresented youth in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Leveraging the Youth-Focused Community and Citizen Science (YCCS) framework, the program connects youth to local ecosystems while addressing ecological challenges such as the Thiamine Deficiency Complex affecting Central Valley Chinook Salmon. The objectives focus on enhancing students' understanding of scientific concepts and processes, fostering science identity, self-efficacy, and environmental science agency, and cultivating a sense of environmental stewardship. Additionally, the program emphasizes the active involvement of community members in co-creating and refining educational strategies, ensuring these approaches are tailored to the diverse cultural and educational needs of the Delta community. This aligns with Science Action C under Management Need 4 in the 2022-2026 Science Action Agenda (SAA), contributing to a broader understanding of community-engaged research methodologies.
As source areas of snowmelt, Sierra Nevada headwater streams are the origin of water that feeds the Delta, but their response to climate change is not well understood. By utilizing long-term data and modeling future responses, we build a tool to reduce scientific uncertainty about Delta water supply and water quality in a changing climate. By incorporating indigenous cultural values, we create a fully integrated shared vison of the future of the Delta in a changing climate, including mapping which areas are most vulnerable and in need of conservation or restoration.
The project objectives are: 1. Utilize and expand on existing water quality and biological monitoring networks in Sierra Nevada headwaters streams to construct models of ecosystem dynamics with respect to climate induced stress impacts on benthic communities, water quality, and nutrients. 2. Construct an oral-history-derived framework of indigenous cultural values of Delta headwaters systems and how science and indigenous values can interact to improve management outcomes. 3. Utilize and expand on existing platforms for dissemination of forecasting tools and model outputs to water managers as well as both scientific and non-scientific communities in the Delta headwaters.
