Submersed in Goldstream River’s cold water, friends Cheyanna Olson and Amber Chaline smile as they heave rotting salmon downstream. The water around them churns as other members of Salmon Camp toss carcasses into the current.

The teenagers are helping clear the way to the river’s fish gate. Along with volunteers from the Goldstream hatchery, they help capture spawning chum salmon for brood stock while dispersing the fish who have already died. It’s hands-on experience like this that forms the crux of Salmon Camp.

Hailing from Oregon, the youth aged 11 to 17, spent a few days on Vancouver Island at the Goldstream hatchery and in Port Alberni in November. Salmon Camp, run by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, connects teenagers with First Nation heritage to specialists working in science, technology, engineering and math.

Having hauled themselves out of the river, Olson and Chaline make the choice to join the camp sound easy.

“I go because I am hoping to have a career in science,” says Olson, 14.

Before the camp she was clueless about this sort of work, she continues. At her home in St. Helen’s, Ore., Olson is working on a creek restoration project outside of the camp. Chaline, 15, joined the camp for the first time this year after Oslon raved about it, she says.

“(She said it’s a great way) to learn about your nature and to see what everything is really about,” she says, noting she hopes to have a career working with animals.

Dejohne Umtuch is in his fifth year of salmon camp. At 16, the program has helped him decide what he wants to do as a career, he says. Umtuch has mapped beaver dams in Oregon and completed snorkel surveys in California — all of which points him in one direction.

“I want to be a marine biologist,” he says.

The program aims to link real world career experience with cultural knowledge, says Salmon Camp co-ordinator Dan Calvert. More intensive in the summer, camps go out to different American states and British Columbia. There youth meet First Nations elders, biologists and other specialists. There is a strong focus on salmon and rehabilitation work, Calvert says.

For some of the youth, school is a struggle but you take them out of the classroom and many of them thrive in a nontraditional learning program, he says.

Aside from the hands-on work, participants are also taken to different universities and colleges so they can see the programs available, he says.

“We are trying to get these students interested (in future careers).”

reporter@goldstreamgazette.com