What We Do
Our Trails and Trail Work
Wingwatchers encourages youth to be active participants on the trail. Alex Vasko earned his Boy Scout Eagle badge in 2013 by creating this sign and marking the Lakeside trail with mileage markers for people who want that information.
Our informational kiosk on the Lakeside trail was an earlier Boy Scout project in 2007 created by Jeffrey Russell and his family.
The primary work of Klamath Wingwatchers is our trail system on the west edge of Lake Ewauna, and the west side of Highway 97 near existing marshlands. Originally this was a public wasteland, unused except by people who camped along the lake and highway. It is now a thriving trail consisting of barked walks, benches, picnic tables, signs, bird watching areas, and native plants. It is also part of the wetland management efforts that edge Lake Ewauna, which ultimately becomes the Klamath River. Wingwatchers cooperates with other public and private land owners to maintain water levels and flow throughout the year. This involves solar-powered pumps, built-up dikes, channels and conduits which allow water to move through the wetlands system.
Our Trail Work
Education and Community Involvement
Klamath Wingwatchers works with numerous community and educational entities to foster an appreciation of nature, the value of volunteer work, and the fun of being outdoors with plants and animals.
Eagle Ridge High School students set up a trailhead kiosk at the Discover Klamath parking lot for the new Ken Hay nature trail in May, 2016.
Students of Klamath Union High School participated in Give Back Day helping with the Wingwatchers Trail in 2019.
Connect Kids to Nature
Klamath Wingwatchers has participated in a grant program for several years to enable local teachers to create a program that connects their students to nature, specifically to local areas such as our trail. This program was paid for in part by the Pelicans on Parade (POP!) project begun in 2005. Some of these art pieces are still for sale.
Below you will find the latest achievement by a teacher at Klamath Union High School who took advantage of such a grant, and the prize-winning result of one of his students.
View the GRANT APPLICATION. Any local teacher is free to apply.
From Daniel B. Stearns, KU/CTE Media Design Teacher, Klamath Falls City Schools:
We have been done with the Eagle film project for the last several months but I wanted to wait to show you the results until we had entered a major film competition for high school students. Today we learned that our Eagle film finished 3rd Place in the national C-SPAN Student CAM film competition.
I just wanted to thank you for giving us the opportunity to work on this project. Freshman Elsie Baumann was the filmmaker and editor for the project.
C-SPAN is thrilled to announce the prize-winning documentaries in StudentCam 2024 - their 20th anniversary of the competition! C-SPAN received entries from over 3,200 students representing 42 states, Washington, D.C., the Mariana Islands, Canada, and India.
Students were asked this year to address the theme: “Looking Forward while Considering the Past." After evaluating each entry through multiple rounds of judging, we are delighted to share the 150 prize-winning documentaries, as well as the winners of the 2024 "Fan Favorite" award and our "Behind the Scenes" photo competition.
KU Digital Media had three entries into this year’s competition. I am proud to announce that all three entries placed at the very top of the competition. Winning 3rd place in the High School West Division was Elsie Baumann with her film “Keystone Species – The American Bald Eagles of the Klamath Basin.”
Elsie’s winning video link is below:
Keystone Species - The American Bald Eagles of the Klamath Basin
Educational Booths and Displays
As part of the educational mission of Klamath Wingwatchers, they have created and display educational booths at various community functions such as PLAY day in January at the Klamath County Fairgrounds, the Winter Wings Festival in February at OIT, and Migratory Bird Day in May at Veterans Park. These are another way to connect with public trail users, children, educators, and potential volunteers.
Reading on the Wingwatchers Trail
Klamath County Library Children's Division partnered with Wingwatchers trail to provide families an opportunity to connect kids to nature and read a fun story at the same time. Librarians selected a book for children aged 5 - 9, laminated the pages so they could be hung on the first 15 numbered posts, and walked the children from post to post, reading the story page at each post. Older children had stories with up to 30 pages.
The Wingwatchers Trail also provides reading opportunities in the form of signs, brochures and worksheets for children. Here is some of our work to encourage literacy and appreciation of nature as viewed from the trail.
