Ottawa NF employees host inaugural Winter Field Day program for local students
MICHIGAN – Forest employees on the Ottawa National Forest recently invited local fourth grade students from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for the Forest’s first ever Winter Field Day program. Based on the excited and enthusiastic responses from students and forest staff following the event, it won’t be the last.
Prior to the pandemic, fourth graders participated in the forest’s cutover program, a lively cultural and historical interpretive play depicting the late 19th century logging era in Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula. During this period, forests were stripped of merchantable trees and slash left on the forest floor. Finally, forests were reclaimed and restored on these cutover lands by the USDA Forest Service through the establishment of the Ottawa National Forest.
Shanelle Saunders, conservation education coordinator for the Forest, realized the cutover program was not going to happen again this year. “I wanted to find a way to still teach the cutover idea, even though we couldn’t be indoors with the students,” she said. “I also wanted to incorporate some fun winter activities. Since the current fifth and sixth grade classes missed this program over the last two years, I was looking for a way to engage with all of these students.”
This is where the idea of a Winter Field Day was born. Saunders recruited several colleagues to help pull the program together. “I wasn’t at all surprised when so many folks from our Forest excitedly jumped at the opportunity and even provided amazing input.”
The team piloted the program with a nearby school. Two groups of students, totaling 25, came to the Ottawa Visitor Center for an unforgettable experience consisting of multiple outdoor field stations, engaging with Forest Service employees representing a variety of professions.
At one station, the kids participated in a snowshoe demonstration, where they were taught how to properly put snowshoes and walk in them. Then they headed out to the nature trail with a forest recreation technician and a timber marker. Most of the kids said it felt like walking through a winter wonderland!
Next up, tracks: Animal tracks that is. Our wildlife biologist showed different native animal tracks in the snow and gave tips for identifying them. They also learned fun facts about the animals.
At another station, kids watched a crosscut demonstration, learned how to measure the diameter of a tree at breast height and how to determine the height of a tree. Foresters incorporated lessons from the Cutover and provided a brief history of the Ottawa National Forest.
At the last field station, the group gathered around a campfire with members of the Forest’s fire staff and learned about winter survival, the importance of fire, different things fire can be used for and how to stay warm in the elements.
Based on the rave reviews from the students, teachers and Forest Service staff, we anticipate offering this program again, engaging with other area schools near the Ottawa National Forest.