Outdoor Education & Life Lessons
Greenbelt has partnered with Marys River Watershed Council, the Institute for Applied Ecology, and elementary schools in the Corvallis School District to provide 140 3rd-graders with hands-on environmental education- all at the perfect outdoor classroom location at Bald Hill Farm!
Read on as Greenbelt’s own Elizabeth Records (Stewardship and Volunteer Specialist) reflects back on one of her favorite moments from last month’s education field days …
Elizabeth explaining tree planting to an eager group of 3rd-graders at Bald Hill Farm.
“I fell in the mud!” The little boy was crying loudly, though he was less dirty than his classmates who had just trooped back from sampling macroinvertebrates in Mulkey Creek. “Just leave him be” said his teacher who was used to this boy, whom I’ll call “Joey”, making mountains out of molehills. The teacher was trying to teach Joey how to cope with everyday setbacks. Joey eyed me, hoping a new adult would respond with a dismay that he felt the muddy situation warranted.
I looked back at him, then down at my own clothes, muddy from planting trees with another group of students who had wasted no time in painting mud patterns on their faces. “Look, I am just as muddy as you are,” I told him. “I work outside, and sometimes I get this muddy every day. I know you are uncomfortable right now, but you will be OK.”
‘No, I won’t!”, said the boy, tearfully and with great conviction.
“Trust me on this one, you’ll see,” I said as cheerily as possible while the child’s teacher led him away to calm down.
Students enjoying macroinvertebrate sampling in Mulkey Creek.
When I took the next group of students out to plant trees, Joey was there, the worst of the mud blotted off with a towel but still visibly damp and dirty. How would he respond to digging into wet soil and planting the ash and spirea seedlings, an exercise that had left the earlier group of students muddier than he had been during his earlier tumble?
“OK, students, when we plant a tree, we could just put it in the hole like this.” I bent the roots of the tree up as if it were planted in too shallow a hole. “Now, imagine you’re a tree—why might it be a problem to have your roots bent?” Joey raised his hand and I called on him. “Because it would be hard to get nutrients.”
“Exactly!”
Elizabeth is showing students how to plant trees as part of a Bald Hill Farm restoration project.
I distributed spades and instructed the kids to team up with a friend and dig shallow holes to plant the tiny trees. To my surprise, Joey took the shovel and started to dig with apparent interest and little fear of getting wetter or muddier. When the planting hole was ready, he waved his hand eagerly for a tree. Though I expected the calm might not last, there were no more tantrums as we led him and his classmates through planting several trees, shrubs, and native flowers in the riparian restoration site.
At the end of the day we asked all the students to raise their hands and share what they had learned. Joey raised his hand again. “Today I learned that planting is hard,” he stated, but without the frustration he’d expressed earlier. He sounded almost philosophical.
It’s moments like this that make me feel in my bones what it means to protect the land. Sometimes connecting with nature can be overwhelming, taking us out of our comfort zone. It is also a challenge to come into our better selves and find the wonder and mystery in the world around us. Having survived his muddy fall, Joey is now a budding land steward, who understands that planting trees is worth getting muddy!
Students having fun with each other and the mud!
Elizabeth Records is Greenbelt’s Stewardship and Volunteer Specialist. Interested in more information about our environmental education programs, partnerships, or volunteering? Please contact Elizabeth.
