2009 Fire Ecology Institute for Educators

I was very pleased with the Fire Ecology Class. I learned so much in just 5 days. The quality of the speakers and the field trips was impressive.

Because I am not a “science” teacher, I was a little intimidated by some of the speakers initially, but I found them to be receptive to questions and I soon felt at ease.

The first day of the class was a little too long. Sitting in a classroom for that many hours is difficult, even if the material and the speaker are engaging. However, I absolutely loved the experiments that we did that afternoon. It was great to see young people who were so knowledgeable and who were so excited by their work. I can’t wait to get back to school and replicate some of those experiments with my own students.

The movie, Fire Wars, was great. I had read a lot about the Mann Gulch fire and about the Storm King fire, so it was very exciting to see it in the movie. One of my goals this summer is to get to Glenwood Springs and to hike the Storm King Memorial Trail. The men and women who lost their lives that day were extremely brave and I look forward to paying tribute to them.

Traveling to Vallecito Reservoir and to Lemon Reservoir was great learning experience. I was amazed at the “brain-power” of the people who were involved in fighting the Missionary Ridge fire and the people who were involved in the clean-up post fire.

Cutting a fire line was much more difficult than I had anticipated. I think of myself as a person who is in shape due to regular exercise. Wow, was I wrong. I was exhausted after about 10 minutes. Swinging the Pulaski again and again completely drained me of energy. I can’t imagine how the fire fighters can keep up that work for 16 hours at a time.

The field trip to Mesa Verde was also great. When I was a fourth grade teacher, I spent a lot of time in my classroom learning about the Anaszai Indians. So, I love Mesa Verde. It was exciting to go there and look at the park through different eyes. I was looking at it from the perspective of forest management and fire mitigation as opposed to an archaeologist. I was shocked to see how much of the park had actually burned.

Overall, I found this class very beneficial and I came away with a ton of new knowledge. I look forward to incorporating some of my new learning into my 5th grade classroom. My love of nature and the outdoors was renewed on this trip and I hope to pass some of that passion on to my students.

Thanks for a great experience.

P.S. I learned so many new acronyms that it is amazing. I will be able to talk about the BLM, USGS, USFS, LEBs, and about a dozen more. 