2009 Fire Ecology Institute for Educators

What the heck was I thinking?!

I am not sure what exactly I was expecting the Fire Ecology Institute to be about. My friend Debbie recommended the experience to me. So I enlisted a few other colleagues to go as a group and we had a plan. When I told people where I was going, they often replied “Why are you doing that?” To be honest, I didn’t have a convincing response. I wasn’t sure what I would get out of it.

After five amazing days, I couldn’t be happier that I listened to my friend. My head was filled with ideas, acronyms, lesson plans, and a newfound appreciation of the vast array of organizations and individuals committed to protecting and maintaining the health of our forests.

Our 7 hour drive home was nothing like our drive to Fort Lewis. On the drive to Fort Lewis, we would point out wildlife or interesting rock formations. The ride home was filled with observations of forest areas that had been mitigated as well as those that needed it, tree identification, homes with no defensible space, weather station spotting, and more. We all were seeing the same landscape with new eyes and information. While the landscape had not changed…we all had.

I now have a much better response to anyone who would ask why I would attend such a course. I learned a wealth of information on tree identification, dendrochronology, and the cycle of forest life. This will be indispensible in our outdoor education program in Snow Mountain Ranch. With the information that I took away, I have valuable resources and lesson plans that will help pre-educate our students about the habitat and the challenges being faced in the mountain area. I love that I have a sample of the mountain pine beetle to show the students. Seeing the devastation that the beetles have caused is easy. But comprehending how small they are and how many it takes to cause such devastation makes the learning even deeper.


Suggestions for the future
I realize that our class was the first of its kind in Durango. I am sure that it was as much of a learning experience for the coordinators as it was for the participants.

In general, I was so impressed with the quality and diversity of the speakers. The first day however was a bit long. It would have been nice to have some activities that could have gotten us moving around a bit more

I would also have appreciated having a bigger picture understanding of what was going to be happening. While I understand the need for flexibility to a schedule, it would have been helpful to me to have some sort of written plan of what we were going to be doing during a day and what supplies we needed. Often times it seemed information was only given verbally and that is not my strong suit.

Logistically, the internet access was more than a little frustrating. Having taken time to pack up and carry my computer to Durango and the classrooms, I was quite disappointed that I was unable to get access. If Ft. Lewis has a problem allowing easy access for personal computers, then other computers should be provided as well as temporary access codes.

Finally, while it was a diverse group of people, it seemed at times that there was also a wide and diverse spectrum of learning agendas. As someone who came knowing nothing, it was intimidating to have more knowledgeable participants elevate discussions above and beyond my understanding and I believe the intended scope of the course. I remember that a comment was made that the course should be broken up into beginner and advanced. I think that would be a great idea for all involved.

Looking forward
I usually walk away from new learnings with an over aggressive plan for classroom implementation. This time, I would like to start out smaller. The first step is to do some preparatory teaching for our outdoor education experience. I plan on focusing on tree identification, the stages of forest growth, and the pine beetle.
The next step will be to incorporate a number of lessons into my writing program. I especially liked the tree rings –autobiographical life ring project. I also loved the ways to write about a tree. I can see that the writing projects in there would be easy to work into my poetry unit as well.

My favorite lesson was the dendrochronology lesson. I loved the puzzle of figuring out the life of a tree by its rings. I would very much like to incorporate those thinking skills in a lesson. The challenge is to round up more tree cookies so that there can be more than the one I brought back. If you have a source for tree cookies or tricks for getting them, I would appreciate hearing back from you.

On a bigger scale, I would like to shake up our current student council. We are not very outward looking. Or when we are it is very passive—we give money and items but are not intimately involved. I would like to make the student council more of a voluntary service organization. And one of the first things that we can get involved with is the Hayman area. We can grow trees and volunteer replanting of the area. We could even consider getting a weather station going. This is big stuff and I will need more than just myself. But my passion and ideas are big. And I have Project Learning Tree and the Fire Ecology Institute to thank for that. Thanks to Shawna and to the rest of the staff who made my personal and professional transformation possible.

p.s. Lesson plans devised by our group were sent under separate cover