Forest Ecology
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| Tree thinning at Donner State Park |
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| Measuring tree diameter |
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| Students collect fuels density data |
Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships collaborates with local land managers and teachers to engage middle school students and others in forest health restoration and monitoring projects throughout the Tahoe Truckee region.
SWEP conducts defensible space and forest health education programs throughout the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District (TTUSD). Students learn about forest ecology in the Tahoe Truckee urban interface and engage in fuels montoring and tree thinning projects on local forests. Annually, SWEP seeks community partnerships to find suitable site for youth participation in hands on forest projects. Partners include CA State Parks, North Tahoe Fire Protection District, US Forest Service, UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, and Truckee Fire
Tree thinning is an excellent way to directly involve youth in solving the problem of overcrowded forests. The results are instant and visible. Working in small teams, students tally and identify the dominant trees in a 10 x 10M plot. Students then form a ‘lopper brigade’ to remove all trees less thank 2” diameter. Thanks to funding from the Teichert Foundation, North Tahoe Fire Protection District, Nevada County, and State Farm for financially supporting this work.
Read the latest NEWS about forest ecology projects.
Scroll down to see what projects students have done in the past.
Forest health service-learning projects at North Tahoe and Alder Creek Middle Schools in 6th and 7th grade Science and Languages Arts classes integrated math, science, language arts and civic engagement standards. Students worked with community partners to inventory and map the forest to determine what was needed to improve forest health and provide defensible space around homes. Students then wrote letters recommending management action, and produced brochures on forest fire safety for distribution to homeowners in their community.
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Taking Math Outdoors |
The place-based service-learning approach integrates many subject areas, using science and math content for reading and writing, while using reading and writing skills to demonstrate math and science learning. This project directly addressed student interest and community concerns about forest fires and fuels management. Students learned about forest health in the classroom, in the field, and at Science Day.
Community partners including California State Parks, Sagehen Creek Field Station, North Tahoe Fire Protection District, Forest Service, Fire Safe Councils, and Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships supported the middle schools in creating a project which met academic and civic engagement goals and motivated students. Funding came from State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Initiative, CalServe, and Nevada County Forest Reserve Fund.
Fuels Reduction Projects for 2007
Recent wildfires in the Tahoe Basin have significantly increased awareness about over crowded forests and defensible space. SWEP partnered with the CA State Parks during the Spring and Summer 2007 seasons to educate youth about Sierra forests. This education resulted in several thinning projects in which youth removed thousands of trees from Donner State park and hundreds of trees in the forested area around Rideout Elementary. See the before and after pictures below. Kids can make a difference!
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| Donner Thinning Project--Before | Donner Thinning--After |
Letters
North Tahoe MS science students wrote letters to local resource management agencies about fire issues. As you can see from the example letters below, the students successfully used their knowledge to address community issues while developing specific literacy skills. Clicking on the thumbnail will bring up a full size pdf version, which you can download.
Brochures
Seven brochures are available as examples, from the North Tahoe MS English class. Clicking on the thumbnail will bring up a full size pdf version, which you can download.
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Applied Math |
How can SWEP help?
SWEP can help identify community partners to participate in projects, and help you plan projects, including classroom and field trip activities. Contact Project Director Missy Mohler, 530-583-1430.
More information
Want to know more about this particular project?
Though a key characteristic of place-based service-learning projects is their integration of many or all subject areas, it is also possible to identify how the project contributes to academic knowledge and skills in specific subject areas.
Language Arts
Math
Students applied math skills such as measurment, calculation of area, angles, plotting and graphing to document the condition of the forest.
- measurement: students measured forest parameters including tree height (using angles and distances), tree diameter and circumference, plot area and species counts
- mapping: students mapped plots to scale and vegetation within each plot including trees, shrubs, forbs and fuels
Science
- ecology: student identified species and examing trees for signs of health or disease, and looked at the relationship between living and non-living resources in the forest
- data collection: students recorded observations and measurements on data sheets
Civic Engagement
- community partners: students worked with and learned from land and resource management agencies (California State Parks, fire protection district, Forest Service), organizations (SWEP, fire safe councils), higher education (Sagehen Creek Field Station), and others
- prescribed fire: students learned about how prescribed fire can be used to reduce excessive fuel build-up in the forest, as well as community perspectives on the benefits and risks of prescribed fire
- defensible space: students learned about the need to manage fuels around homes and buildings to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire and enhance fire-fighter safety
Documents
- North Tahoe MS / Burton Creek State Park
- Lindee Eckert at North Tahoe MS documented her science class project as a CalServe case study.
- Science Day Schedule
- Student Data Sheet (short)
- Treatment Recommendations
- Pre-Post Activites
- Forest Health workshop for teachers
- Alder Creek MS / Sagehen Creek Field Station