SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP COHORT RETURNS FROM FLOOD AND FIRE ECOLOGY TRIP TO COLORADO

2014 SLC Cohort

A group of high school students, college interns, and Sustainable Development Institute staff traveled to Colorado to learn about water and fire issues, climate change’s impacts on the ecology of the region, and what sustainability means in different places as part of the USDA POSOH project. While camping out in the mountains for 5 days, the group received an eye-opening overview of the landscape through tours and hiking, while also working on service-learning projects in areas recently impacted by major floods and fires.

Before going out to rough it in the mountains, the program began at The Alliance Center in Denver, CO, the hub for sustainability in Colorado, to hear from local sustainability experts and learn more about increased fire load and intensity as well as drought and flood issues facing Colorado.

Kristin Maharg, Program Manager, for the Colorado Foundation for Water Education called Colorado the land of extremes and described some of the challenges and opportunities with the scarce resource in the west–water. “Colorado, being at the headwaters of many major watersheds in the west, is a water steward for many states out here, as well as Mexico.  We are trying to move from a capitalistic view of water to a more collaborative perspective.” Many were shocked to learn that water was treated like private property in Colorado, which became later fuel for many a campfire discussion.

SLC Crew hike to their camping spot

The view from the SLC Campsite

The SLC then packed up and headed to the mountains just west of Denver to camp out for the next 4 nights and 5 days (where they didn’t have cellphone service…ahhhh!!!). They got used to the higher elevation and also learned camping skills, fire ecology, and wildfire management. They traveled around the landscape to learn first hand about fire and water issues in the area which are exacerbated by climate change, particularly the devastating floods that impacted Colorado in September 2013. As the group drove around, they could see the connection between the charred landscape and bigger floods, as there wasn’t vegetation to slow down more intense rainfalls.

 SLC Students and Mentors work together to set up camp

The camp battles it out in a game of "Ninja!"

Students and Mentors enjoy their time around the campfire

They were also able to connect to community-based learning as they helped complete much-needed flood restoration projects. For example, at Calwood Education Center, the group worked as a team to rebuild some stairs, which were destroyed by the flood. The trail had been closed since the flood but thanks to the work of the SLC, could now be reopened. Calwood Education Center was grateful since the trail ran down to a former mica mine that many 5th graders use to learn about geology.

SLC Students work to install stairs on Colorado Mountainside

The SLC Crew sit on their completed stairwell

(Foreground from Left: Standing - Justin "Jud" Gauthier,

Lorenzo Warrington, and Mylia Olson. Sitting - Susan Webster, Manih Boyd,

Santana Caldwell, Chelsey Haberl, Cherie Thunder, Angie Wilber)

(Background from Left: Standing - Rebecca Edler. Sitting - McKaylee Duquain, Jacob Schwitzer,

Brandon Warrington, Jason Edler, Travis Spice, Nicholas Schwitzer, and Kate Flick.)

The crew wrapped up their time in the mountains and stopped in Boulder, CO to meet SDI Climate Science Center partners from Rising Voices.  They spoke with climate change scientist Dr. Jeffery Morisette about including indigenous perspectives in climate change science as well as career opportunities in these fields.

Many thanks to the Cottonwood Institute for helping to organize such a great learning experience!

The Cohort enjoying some downtime in Boulder, CO.

SDI Intern McKaylee Duquian gets caught up investigating

the ash from part of the burnt environment

SLC Students looking at the bark of a pine

The Cohort explores the area around their campgrounds

The sight our explorers found

SLC Members pose like Rosie the Riveter after doing 

hard work volunteering to help clean up in the Lyons Community post-flood.

SLC Crew striking a pose at a river during the beginning of their Colorado Trip

SHARING KNOWLEDGE: SDI STUDENT WORKERS PRESENT FOREST RESEARCH

On July 8 Ken LaTender and Brenda Miller (SDI summer student workers) attended an Intro to Sustainable Development class being taught by Chad Waukechon, to present an overview of a project they’ve been involved with this summer.

The presentation focused on their work related to the installation of a one hectare training plot on the East side of the CMN campus, and two-one hectare long-term research plots located in the Northern part of the Menominee forest. The first layer of data being gathered as a baseline on these plots is a tree census using an advanced inventory protocol developed by Dr. Richard Condit of the Smithsonian Institute.

Ken LaTender

SDI will be hosting a two-day workshop at the Menominee Resort Casino on Aug. 5/6. Ken and Brenda will be among a number of students, graduate students, and staff from CMN and SUNY ESF that will present information on a variety of forest ecology projects. We encourage anyone with an interest to attend.

 

Brenda Miller

Reciprocal Learning and Forest and Climate Leaders Retreat at Kemp Research Center

By Cherie Thunder

Wisconsin Fast Plants/ POSOH Intern

Sustainability Leadership Cohort 2013

Forest and Climate Leaders Retreat at Kemp Research Center

June 21-June 24

Woodruff, WI

With Memories of capture the flag, jumping from the high dive, and midnight Sun Drop raids, how can we forget the time spent at UW-Madison’s Kemp Research Center? High school students, community members, scientists, undergraduate and graduate students all gathered for the Forest and Climate Leaders Research Retreat in Woodruff, WI from June 21^st to June 24^th. The four day event was a great way to explore different careers in the STEM fields and to mutually learn from each other. Students and scientist alike were given the chance to exchange ideas and explore other cultures.  

Kemp Natural Resources Station is a research and teaching facility operated by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Located in the heart of Wisconsin's Northwoods, Kemp Station's 235 acres support some of the last remnants of old-growth forest in the Lake States as well as research by many of the university’s scientists and students. 

Dr. Ankur Desai with the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at UW-Madison brought several of his graduate and undergraduate students to teach students about climate change topics related to the forest. SDI Education Coordinator Kate Flick collaboratively designed the retreat with Ankur Desai. “Ankur and I had been talking about how to spark students’ interests in science and decided to try exposing high school students to what scientists really do and the career pathways of how they got to where they are…shift their perspective that scientists just wear lab coats to something like they are actually real people and fun to boot. What better way than to hang out and do real science in the woods?” Kate said. In fact, the retreat was the first ever of its kind to involve high school students at UW-Madison’s Kemp Research station.

The retreat gave students the opportunity to begin understanding some of the impacts of climate change locally and globally and to acquire new science skills such as, performing real scientific research and carrying out experiments in the field.  One of the experiments included setting off smoke bombs to understand how air flows (or fluxes) through a forest and eventually ends up at a flux tower. These giant towers continuously take measurements on important green house gases. Two days were spent learning from the scientists and the of team graduate students in both the classroom and in the field at research sites in the area.  The students were able to do some soil and water testing, tree coring, and learning about meteorology and lakes. 

During the evening the students participated in nightly fires, talking circles, medicine wheel teachings, and a climate change decision making activity. The fire provided informal times to understand the stories of how students and scientists found and followed their career pathways.  By doing the decision making activity students gained an understanding of why important climate change issues need to be discussed and voted upon in order to find community consensus. We held a mock community meeting where participants took on different roles of community stakeholder interests in whether to build a wind farm near the College or not.  Stakeholders included College of Menominee nation students and staff, Menominee Tribal Enterprise employees, near-by homeowners, coal workers at a power plant, community interest groups, and scientists. The medicine wheel teachings provided a great way to share the Menominee culture and remind everyone involved why we were participating in the retreat in the first place. SDI food sovereignty intern Lloyd Frieson said, “The medicine wheel is something that brings all our nations together."  Dr. Ankur Desai also emphasized that science had its own strong traditions rooted in curiosity. 

Throughout the retreat everyone had responsibilities like cooking meals, washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. Being a community leader is one of prominent goals of this cohort and was represented through doing chores daily and giving back to your place or community. These duties helped bring the group together and teach the students to be in charge of and responsible for their own actions. 

Everyone was surprised at how well they were able to relate to one another. The scientists, students, and interns all seemed to express and appreciate that their knowledge of science and culture was expanded by the end of the weekend. Overall the trip was a great success and we have high hopes for the future forest and climate leaders of the Wisconsin area.