ARIZONA — Jackson Leonard, scientist-in-charge of Rocky Mountain Research Station’s Sierra Ancha Experimental Forest, located near Young, Ariz., recently partnered with Upward Bound of Northern Arizona University and Ecoculture to teach high school students about the effects of climate change on the forest and surrounding ecosystems. Ten students spent three days and camped for two nights at the experimental forest participating in activities ranging from mindfulness exercises to basic approaches in forestry.

The students are enrolled in Upward Bound, a federally funded program that provides educational services and college preparatory assistance to high school students from low-income backgrounds or who will be first-generation college graduates. The program is designed to increase retention and graduation rates of program participants.

The Upward Bound curriculum includes the Summer Academy, a four-week program that allows students who earned a C or better during their regular academic year to receive one unit of high school elective credit. These summer, year 2 academy students are learning about climate change and get to see firsthand the effects of a changing climate on the forest landscape. Additionally, students took part on a trip to the top of nearby Aztec Peak. The group also discussed the history of Sierra Ancha Experimental Forest and the challenges and pressures it’s facing, reflected on these experiences by journaling and then sharing as a group, and practiced basic approaches in forestry such as taking a compass bearing and delineating a field plot.

Diana Casillas Betoney, Upward Bound program director, explained why it was important to bring students to Sierra Ancha Experimental Forest: “With the academic curriculum that the students have in the summer, it’s important to bring the students out into nature and actually get that hands-on experience, enjoy the outdoors and also hear firsthand from these scientists”.

Emmett Foster, Upward Bound year 2 instructor, reflected on the significance of students visiting Sierra Ancha Experimental Forest: “By and large, our students are coming from Indigenous communities, so it’s been a really beautiful opportunity to talk about not only the environmental sustainability and [what] we’re doing to combat and address climate change, but also what that means for cultural sovereignty, what that means for the sustainability of cultural practices, traditions and customs.”

For Evelyn Saavedra Caballero, Upward Bound program participant, some parts of the experience that were impactful didn’t involve numbers or calculations. “My favorite part would probably be when we went up to the mountain yesterday, and we got to see all the green trees … I felt like I could almost touch the clouds because they were so close, and they looked so fluffy.” She poetically described the effect of the wind through the trees as “moving almost as if they were dancing.”

The collaboration among Sierra Ancha Experimental Forest, Upward Bound and Ecoculture was a pilot to determine the feasibility of future offerings at Sierra Ancha for Upward Bound. All organizers agreed that the event was extremely successful and look forward to collaborating again to bring students onto the experimental forest in the future.

For more images from the workshop, please visit the event’s Flickr album.