Creek Freaks - Engaging Youth in Water Quality

Want to start an outdoor education program but don’t know where to start?
Looking for hands-on activities for your classroom or an existing youth program?
Have you been looking for a way to share your love of the outdoors with kids in your community?

Creek Freaks could be the answer!

WHAT IS A CREEK FREAK? Creek Freaks are kids making a splash to help the environment by monitoring water quality. Each session takes youth outside to explore local streams and learn how healthy trees, shrubs, and grasses protect clean water and wildlife. Kids of all ages are then empowered as local stream experts and are encouraged to continue advocating for and working to improve water quality.

This program is great for anyone working with youth, from Izaak Walton League chapters to after-school programs and summer camps.

The Izaak Walton League can offer you several ways to get started:

Materials: Visit the Creek Freaks Web site to download the curriculum and extension activities. The Web site also is a place where you can post data, videos, photos, and stories about streams and learn about other streams in your community.
Attend a training: The Izaak Walton League runs two-day comprehensive training on all of the hands-on indoor and stream monitoring activities for the Creek Freaks program. The training will include a basic overview of stream ecology, guidance on how to manage the logistics of conducting on-going youth programs, and hands-on training in conducting activities from the Creek Freaks curriculum. E-mail the League’s Save Our Streams program at sos@iwla.org for information about upcoming trainings.

This program is a partnership of the Izaak Walton League of America, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, and U.S. Forest Service.