Sisters students learn in the forests

It was a middle school student’s dream: a sunny day out of school, a picnic in the woods — and you were told to play in the water.

However, while having fun outdoors, sixth grade students from Sisters Middle School were also learning about the environment and how to record data about forests and water.

Some 28 students of Carol Packard’s science class spent a day last week visiting the Metolius Preserve west of Camp Sherman. For five hours they looked, smelled, listened and explored the forests and the waters of Lake Creek, learning how plants, trees, animals, weather and water exist together. They also learned how scientists gather information on the environment.

The Metolius Preserve is a 1,240-acre area located west of Sisters between the Camp Sherman Road and the Jack Lake Road along Lake Creek, surrounded by the Deschutes National Forest. It was acquired two years ago by the Deschutes Basin Land Trust as a place to demonstrate good land management practices and as an outdoor learning center.

“When students come here for the day, they follow and stay with one subject of the environment, rather than look briefly at eight or two separate ones as is usually the case with other outdoor learning experiences,” Mrs. Packard explained. “They also will come back four or five times during this school year to see how things change.”

The students also are providing a service to the Land Trust by gathering data on the forests and water on the preserve.

Wolftree, a northwest environmental educational organization established over 10 years ago, provided the instruction for students visiting the preserve. The organization is headquartered in Portland and maintains a branch office in Sisters. Jay Hopp is the education director for the organization and directed the day’s visit to the preserve.

“A big mission of the Land Trust certainly is to educate people about their land,” Hopp said. “We were doing programs here even before they purchased the land. Weyerhaeuser Company that sold the land to the trust is one of our key partners along with the Deschutes National Forest, Bureau of Land Management and others.”

Funding for their work comes from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, the Oregon Forest Resources Institute and Deschutes County, he added.

The class broke up into three small groups and headed off in different directions to learn and to explore. Hopp guided one group of the students on a tour along Lake Creek.

After first showing them how to use a map and compass, he asked each of the students to start a written record of what conditions were at the time in the preserve.

“Write down the date and time, what you think the temperature is, look at the cloud cover, how windy it is and what kinds of plants that you see here,” Hopp said.

When that record was written, Hopp’s next instructions were “Walk off by yourself and write down what you see, hear, smell and think.” When the students gathered back, their written notes offered a variety of comments. “Lots of spider webs,” “some leaves on the trees have been eaten,” “there’s lots of tall grass that’s spread out,” and “some trees are smaller than the others.”

Then the real fun began. Students pulled on chest-high waders, some almost over their heads, and started exploring the waters of Lake Creek. Wading in the shallow stream, they measured a 50-foot stretch to focus their studies and proceeded to learn more about water ecology.

Another sixth grade class from Sisters Middle School was scheduled to visit the preserve the following day to learn more about the forests and waters of Central Oregon.