Students honored for tree study

(Left-right): Joe Lymp of Oregon Community Trees; Katie Kause (ODF); teacher Samra Spear; students Pat McFarland, Matt Harp, Josh Kelleher, Jeff Boswell and Michael Forcum; city officials Gary Frazee and Eileen Stein. At back, teachers Glen Herron and Rob Phelps. Photo by Jim Cornelius

Five Sisters students won honors in the 2002 Oregon Urban Community Forestry Awards for a tree study they performed in Sisters.

Pat McFarland, Matt Harp, Josh Kelleher, Jeff Boswell and Michael Forcum inventoried the trees in Creekside Park and the Village Green, including information on the overall health of each tree.

The students, working in their Interdisciplinary Environmental Expedition (IEE) class, made recommendations to the Sisters City Council for maintaining the health of the trees.

The recommendations included proposals for pruning or removing some unhealthy trees. The council acted upon those recommendations and will keep the students' survey as a basis for a comprehensive community forest plan.

"You guys made a difference," said teacher Rob Phelps. "That's what it takes in a community.'

Katie Kause of the Oregon Department of Forestry was particularly impressed that the students not only did the work but persuaded a political body to act on it.

Kause noted that the Sisters High School award was the first given to a school east of the Cascades.