How migratory birds are connecting students in Oregon and Mexico

The fourth-graders begin to paint, transforming the white mural with bright splashes of orange and blue. Every so often they glance down at the printed map, a visual aid and color guide. Jorge Macias Padilla traces the red head of the rufous hummingbird, carefully guiding his brush down the point of its inky black beak. A pair of students nearby fill in the neon wings of the yellow warbler, the long lines of the great blue heron. The sky blue Willamette River takes form, down to its familiar curves and bridges. With each deliberate stroke of burnt orange, the rocky terrain of the Laja Basin completes the picture.

Dyanna Perez Lopez takes a step back to admire her work, tilting her head before letting her brush find the empty space. Their migratory bird mural will hang here, at Peoria Gardens Nursery: a visual representation of this Albany school’s relationship with the students in the Laja Basin, and the birds that connect them.

South Shore Elementary School is one of 20 schools across the Willamette Valley and the Laja Basin that participate in Aves Compartidas, one of the most popular education programs from the Willamette-Laja Twinning Partnership. The partnership, an organization founded in Oregon and based in both México and Oregon, connects elementary students from México’s Laja Basin and Oregon’s Willamette Valley over their shared migratory birds. Students build cross-border friendships over their birds and commonalities in their cultures and daily lives.

Every year, thousands of rufous hummingbirds (for third grade students), yellow warblers (fourth grade) and great blue herons (fifth grade) migrate from the Willamette to the Laja and back. The students complete hands-on restoration and education based projects with the aim of creating a better habitat for their birds to return to. Tara Davis, Willamette-Laja Twinning Partnership director, believes that encouraging students to care about these birds empowers the kids and marks the beginning of their journey as lifelong environmental stewards.

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For Davis, the fascination with the Laja Basin began almost two decades ago. “In 2005, I performed the research for my master’s in the Laja and got to know all the conservation and river groups,” she says. In 2015, Davis, then executive director of a watershed council in the Willamette, received an exciting cross-cultural opportunity. “We got this large grant from the International River Foundation, for the Willamette to partner with any river basin in the whole world,” she says. Davis immediately knew which river basin she wanted to choose. “I advocated for the Laja,” she says, serving as one of the founders of the Willamette-Laja Twinning Partnership.

Spring 2017 saw the organization shift its focus to youth project-based learning and university internships. “To make real change, we also need to work with young people,” she says. “And we really have to focus on a species that bonds us, like migratory birds.” They’ve gained a number of funders and collaborators, including Institute for Applied Ecology and the University of Oregon.

The partnership worked with scientists, federal and state governments and nongovernmental organizations to synthesize the bird migratory data in both basins so they could clearly identify the shared species. There are more than 40 shared migratory bird species, Davis says. Soon they narrowed down those 40 to the three birds, one for each grade. Quickly they began recruiting schools for the Aves Compartidas program, growing from three schools in the Willamette and one in Laja in 2018, to 20 schools strong in 2023 (eight in the Laja and 12 in the Willamette).

Davis says that choosing the three birds was a calculated decision. “You don’t pick a shared species that lives in this rare habitat that you never ever see because then the kids will get discouraged and not become bird watchers,” she says. They chose the birds that would be easiest for the students to observe in both countries. “What matters most is that the children look towards the sky,” Davis says. “Birds are everywhere.”

Carina Zehr, Aves Compartidas coordinator, explains that the restoration projects the students do are geared toward their bird. The third graders are focused on planting pollinators for the rufous hummingbird, creating a pollinator garden if the school allows it, while fourth graders restore woodlands full of native plants for the yellow warbler and fifth graders restore wetlands for the great blue heron. “We generally try to work at parks that are walking distance from schools, so in their neighborhoods or on school grounds,” Zehr says.

For example, Sarah Ruggiere’s third grade class from El Puente Elementary in Milwaukie planted native salmonberries and snowberries in Milwaukie Bay Park, anticipating the rufous hummingbird migration. “The trees provide shelter for the birds, they’re able to build a nest and use the trees for nutrients,” Ruggiere says.

The partnership features a distinctive philosophy when it comes to climate change education. “What we want is resilient kids,” Davis says. “We don’t necessarily explain the ins and outs of climate change but rather develop compassion for nature, love for nature, a way of expressing gratitude for nature which is ultimately what’s going to help them care for the habitats that we’re restoring and protecting.”

Birds are an indicator species of watershed health, Davis explains. “If children at this young age learn about birds, they will be able to observe and monitor the ecology of their basin over time as they become adults,” she says.

Zehr appreciates how the program helps children with feelings of hopelessness and climate anxiety. “It gives students and educators tangible steps to help mitigate climate change and habitat loss,” she says. The projects turn the daunting, overwhelming issue of climate change into something more manageable, giving children agency in the process of exploring their central question: Why do birds need habitat and how can we conserve and restore it?

Sending letters in Spanish, the children communicate with their sister schools throughout the year, talking not just about their birds but cultural customs, Davis says. “All the schools we work with are dual immersion and tend to be high percentage Latinx, and a lot of the Latinx kids are Mexican-American.” The students communicate in Spanish, and many learn and connect over a shared heritage. “They love the partnership with the Laja friends because they haven’t necessarily been to México,” she says.

Ruggiere emphasizes that all the students benefited from the Laja relationship, no matter their cultural background. “It was really cool for them to realize that even though someone is in a different country, maybe speaks a different language than they do, that they still have similarities and common interests,” she says.

Aves Compartidas is one of many programs put on by the Willamette-Laja Twinning Partnership, Davis says. “Another program that is growing quickly is Crossborder University Partnership—a crossborder learning opportunity for emerging professionals.” Students from the University of Guanajuato have completed internships with the partnership that align with their interest in restoration and climate change education.

The reach of the partnership continues to expand. A few years ago, Davis ran into another organization called Amigos Aladas; its program worked with children from British Columbia, the San Francisco Bay Area and the state of Jalisco, México. “Now we’re collaborating with them, writing larger grants to get joint funding for our programs.” Davis says. “Scaling up that impact.”

At Peoria Gardens, Davis instructs the children to put down their brushes and go to lunch. Reluctantly, the group obeys, setting their tools aside. But one boy stays put, eyes fixed on his painting, turning the desert more orange with each brushstroke. Finally, JayJay Johnson sits back and surveys the mural, taking in the spiny green cactus of the Laja Basin, the warm brown of the bridges that divide the Willamette and the red wings of the rufous—satisfied with the creation.

— Sofia Garner, for The Oregonian/OregonLive