Reflections on the 2009 Fire Ecology Institute

Reflection of the FEI Course June 2009
I would first like to say this is the most interesting class I have taken in years and Ms. Crocker had more energy than most of us and I really enjoyed the class. This paper is to insure that the points we examined are applicable to our classes.
Our first day, the presenter was from the CSU, Colorado State Forestry Dept. He was a little nervous as he said this was one of the larger groups he had addressed. The policies that the Statae of Colorado has adopted indicate that philosophies of all the parties dealing with the forests, differ greatly. He was explaining to us that he had differences about what to do about fires, harvesting and management even within his own office. The material that was given was overwhelming and maybe it would have been easier if it had been scanned and our laptops used to do sequencing or tabbing as to what was covered and what wasn’t. He made the first day interesting and long. Remembering teachers’ attention span drifts after about an hour.
The second day was great, we went out to the lake, here we actually viewed the end results of an uncontrolled fire. The U.S. Forestry Service gentlemen was very interesting and gave us a presentation as if we were actually there. We not only learned about the fire, but the timeline and he took responsibility for the first few hours as the story developed. I do not believe it was his fault for not enough attention being paid to the first hours. Using the tools and being on a simulated fire line was fun. Mike Lands and I want to get our Red Card this fall. The amount of clearing we performed, compared to a real fire crew was a revelation. He said a crew in that type of environment could clear a mile in about an hour. Seeing the pictures of the forces at work really puts it in perspective. The high points were the pictures of the start of the fire, the helicopter pilots story, the 3 tornados, and the reclamation of the forest that is taking place right now. Wednesday was the day it rained. We really needed to be out there getting soaked and tired! An outside activity being involved in the environment would have been great. I think this class was tougher than I had thought it was going to be.
Our best day, by far, was the trip to Lemon Resevoir. The Naturalist (ZZ Top) was the most interesting to listen to. He truly loves the land and the forest he is in charge of. We all stood around listening to his stories spoken in the language of a person, who works for a living and knows how to get things done. His tales of going ahead and doing things and then begging forgiveness is really a story of the past, before bureaucracy had neutered us all to paperwork and committees. He inspired a lot of conversation that night. We had a lot of reflection that evening, not only about his methods but how we should do some things differently to see if that spirit exists at our schools and communities; or if that is just a flicker of the past and not reclaimable. I thank you for having him address this class as he was the best of our speakers.
I have now gone through our material, taken it to my room at school where it will be distributed to others in the Science and Math Departments. I am changing my first assignment Cabin Design. Now, it will include a plot designated as a forest type identified by the students as Pine, Aspen or PJ. They will now have to identify the elevations and land type and Fuel Mitigation Areas. We will also set up a clearing of the sites before we can build and for a treat it has to be certified by me as to being a viable site for control of fires. This class has opened my eyes to many possibilities for introduction into my curriculum and, into the use of foresters into my class as presenters to help my classes understand the forests. I enjoyed this class more than I have any other class in many years.
Shawna your energy, the presenters, materials and use of time was outstanding. You never let us drift, but kept us on time and made sure our energies were focused on our job. The large book you gave us that had the Teaching plans gave us web sites that can be used in all classes and I think it makes it easier for us to use these resources.
I will be faxing you my teaching plans which will be implemented as my first project in my 8th grade class. At the end of that project, I will send you a copy so that you may see the application into the classroom.
I would like to know when there will be future training classes you will be conducting as I would like to participate. You are outstanding.
Thank you so much for a great week.