At right in main photo, Maggie Enquist stands proud, surveying the scene while her fifth-grade classmates, from left, Grace Weiand and Addison Ludden fill in dirt for the tree they planted this morning next to Bear Creek at the Friendly Village senior citizen housing complex in Redmond.

In all, 60 fifth-graders from the Assumption Saint Bridget School in Seattle will be teaming up with the Adopt A Stream Foundation’s (AASF) Stream Team today to plant the live Christmas trees that AASF acquired for rental in 2012.

AASF fish and wildlife manager C.K. Eidem said they are teaching the students why it is important to have a lot of trees next to salmon streams, and the newly planted trees will become a new riparian zone.

A riparian zone is the area of vegetation around a stream that affects the ecology of that stream. Trees provide shade that helps keep water temperature cool — salmon and trout prefer temperatures in the low 50s (Fahrenheit).