Camp Sherman students study environment

Black Butte School students in the fourth through sixth grades spent two days last week at Camp Caldera studying the environment. Kindergarten to third grade students joined them the afternoon of the second day.

Head teacher Toni Coleman and K-3 teacher Ethan Barrons, along with teacher Carol Dixon and several volunteers strove to make Environmental School a success.

Before the event, local resident and volunteer Kent Gill led the students on a trail walk to learn about the local forests. He took them to the locally famous fallen white fir whose branches reach for the sky and look like a grove of trees. He pointed out plants along the trail most students had missed in their prior walks through the forest.

In the days before their trip, students played detective in class by trying to solve a mystery of what is killing the fish. The fishes' journey and clues to the murder mystery are mapped out on the wall with hopes the students will learn more to help solve the mystery during their projects at Suttle Lake.

Students have also been reading "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen which added to their appreciation of all the owls they heard (but never saw) when trying to sleep their first night at the camp site.

As a finale to their big day, the students will be writing a story about what creature might lurk at the bottom of Blue Lake.

Day one began with a game students played during a hike where they taught each other something new about the trees. They learned that a Douglas fir isn't a real fir because the cones grow down. They saw firsthand the stages of succession: grasses, shrub, conifer head, and old growth and how fire affects growth in the forest.

Local Camp Sherman artist Karen Z. Ellis donated her time after the trip to help the students with their botanical drawings of the plants they learned about on the trail.

Later in the day they tested water using chlorine, checked the temperature, the PH, and dissolved oxygen.

They did a macroinvertebrate search in creek water. Earlier in the week they had discussed in class that if insects that are sensitive to pollution were found in the water, then the water is pure.

The students said Blue Lake is the third deepest lake in Oregon. Waldo Lake is second, with first place held by Crater Lake.

Students went out in three canoes and took four depth readings. They were hoping to find the reported 314 foot depth. Using fish line and an eight ounce weight, they found a spot with a 240 foot depth.

Blue Lake was formed by a volcanic crater, which is known as a caldera, thus the name for Camp Caldera.

The evening wound down with s'mores and campfire stories told by camp guide, Trout.

The second day saw the arrival of the younger students. They spread their enthusiasm by pretending to be penguins, followed by playing a game to learn the role of the lake's inhabitants.

When asked how Environmental School had changed their outlook of the environment, one student commented: "Before, when I rode in the car and looked at the forest, I just saw a bunch of trees. Now I see the individual trees and the animals and plants around them."