Y-LINC Day Five - Conservation

One of the biggest concerns of the Friends of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas is that we inform people about the natural resources that have been made available to them. Y-LINC campers go to see one of the most important resources offered to them and to landowners: expertise.

The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) operates the East Texas Plant Materials Center (ETPMC) just outside of Nacogdoches, on the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest. SFASU partners with the Forest Service to manage the Experimental Forest as a living laboratory, in which discoveries that help use conserve our resources can germinate. The ETPMC spends every day finding, evaluating, and growing plants that solve conservation issues, like finding native grasses that can reduce the erosion caused by road construction, or developing techniques that can remove or stymie the spread of invasive species into Texas lakes. Alan Shadow, a conservationist at the ETPMC showed the students around his plant solutions lab, demonstrating seed sorters and explaining the purpose of some otherwise alien looking equipment, including super specialized seed planters and harvest customized for research plots.

Harvesting Clasping Coneflower, very carefully...

Students also harvested and planted Clasping Coneflower seeds right from a ETPMC research plot, preparing plugs that will grow in the humid greenhouse at the ETPMC, burst from the fecund dirt, and become transplants to be used in the many Greenschools that FNFGT is "planting" in Houston, including Lantrip Elementary. So even as we are exposing these teens to opportunities and new knowledge, their service learning projects are impacting students back at home, through the connections between FNFGT programs.

MMM... seeds

Tamberly Conway, Conservation Educator with the USFS, and John Boyette of the Texas Forest Service led the students on a short hike into the SFA Experimental Forest, then demonstrated the use of one the most important tool in a forester's vest: the increment borer. The students got to see first hand how a forester collects data on growth rates, which is of vital importance to making wise decisions about how to manage a forest.

Look at our new friend! Tamberly found this _____ under
the equipment at the NRCS, prompting a
spontaneous lesson on the importance of snakes!

The Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest.

In closing out the day, Della ______ introduced the PLT Greenschools program to the students, and they began to do impact investigations on the Youth-LINC headquarters, acting as if it were a school they were going to help improve. FNFGT has established many Greenschools in the Houston area, and you can read about our success on the FNFGT main page (click the FNFGT logo in the upper right). PLT Greenschools is a student engaging program that challenges the student body to investigate how their school impacts the environment, develop a plan to change that impact, and write a grant to request funds to preform their project.

Naielli thinks that using an increment borers is hardcore. 

Our campers also got to learn an even more important skill than fire building from John Boyette: orienteering. Our students mastered the compass, learned their pace, and  practiced these skills on a course. Even if it took a few tries, all the groups managed to find their way.

Orienteering with John Boyette.

Tomorrow will be a free day for our kids, a time to absorb and reflect on what adventures they have had during the week. We invite all the campers, former and current, to comment on these blogs about what they thought about their times here, and to connect with FNFGT on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN to stay informed!

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Y-LINC Day Four: Lumberjacks

"I'm going to study ornithology" said Alberto Gomez on the van ride early in the morning.

Mind you, many of our Y-LINC campers were going to go to college, but it is always so amazing when someone comes into a program like Y-LINC, and keeps coming back, and now they know they want to have a life that has everything to do with outdoors, and they know how to get and where to get it.

Dr. Warren Conway explains telemetry.

Y-LINC had the first time ever opportunity this year to attend a bird-walk, hosted by Dr. Warren Conway of the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture at +Stephen F. Austin State University. Dr. Conway lent our participants binoculars and taught the nuts and bolts basics of bird calls and using the binoculars to spot birds. He told us there were thousands of bird species in the world and that some people spend their whole lives looking for the next one on their lists. He hid stuffed animal birds for the campers to find, and they did in fact find them. He also showed us the use of telemetry equipment, which SFASU scientists such as himself use to track animal movements.

Dr. Tamberly Conway, Conservation Educator with the USFS
and Dr. I-Kaui Hung, Professor of Spatial Science at
The Arthur Temple College of Forestry and
Agriculture at SFASU.

Wildlife research is not the only ambition that can be fulfilled at SFASU. Dr. I-Kuai Hung told us about the burgeoning field of Spatial Science and Geographic Technologies, which are the research and development behind the latest in map making technology and include powerful Geographic Information Systems which help us understand our world and our spaces better. This career feild is very important to the natural sciences, especially when it comes to creating plans that help us coexist with nature.

Then it was time to loosen up and get active at the Health and Physical Education Building, where a Campus Recreation expert invited us to play some team building games. The campers had a ball as they raced around playing elbow tag, working together to lower a tent pole to the ground, tying themselves in knots, and many others. All the games had the common theme of creating bonds with each other, turning strangers into friends. It was all great preparation for our last activity at SFASU: climbing the rock wall. Fears of awkwardness and heights were conqured simultaneously on Thursday.

Elbow Tag at the Health Science building.

Rock wall at the SFASU Rec Center

Once we returned home, John Boyette of the +Texas A&M Forest Service taught  a bit of Texas history with a tree cookie from the famous, one-of-a-kind Marshall Oak tree. John wove history into biology together as he showed the students how wider rings indicate faster growth, which may indicate more favorable growing conditions, such as a lack of competition. John illustrated the competion concept through the PLT lesson "Every Tree for Itself".

Alberto Gomez with a tree
cookie from the Sam Houston
Campaign Tree.

The next day would be another National Forest adventure, out to the land where nature helps to conserve itself...

Don't forget to check out more photos of today's events at our Flickr Photostream!

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Y-LINC Day Three: "The lake is calling and I must go"

Pretending to be beached walruses.

First thing in the morning after a warm pancake breakfast cooked by +Alberto Gomez and his team, our campers headed out the Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area in the Davy Crockett National Forest. They were briefed about alligator safety and swimming safety beforehand, and had a safe and fun time.

Group Photo!

Captain Chris Crane manages the law enforcement officers of the National Forests in Texas and Louisiana, and blessed us with his wisdom that afternoon. He shared what it was like to be a FS law enforcement officer and showed us his multiple survival kits that he carries with him on the job on a daily basis. The campers learned that the seeming disparate worlds of law enforcement in a city and law enforcement in the forest were not so different.

Treetops in the Forest

Mike Ross then spoke with us after lunch about what he does for the Forest Service: he manages the fleet for the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas. It's his job to make sure everyone has a vehicle, that every vehicle is maintained, that there is enough money for fuel, and that old vehicles are replaced in a timely manner. This sparked a lively discussion about how the Forest Service as well as the Texas Forest Service are doing research to develop alternative energy sources for vehicles.

Happy to serve!

The campers then traveled over to one of our favorite destinations for Y-LINC, a little environmental learning center called Treetops in the Forest. Founded and ran by Dr. Christine Kallstrom, the center has been teaching children about the environment for decades. The participants threw themselves into the task of cleaning up the lawn and the inside as best as they could. We then played Animal Charades from the Project WILD curriculum and walked a labyrinth constructed on the property, releasing our stress and personal problems to the healing, absorptive ground.

Then it was back to HQ, for swimming, quesadillas, and S'mores. As part of our leadership skills training, Dave Clipson started a truly thought provoking discussion on ethics, asking the students "How do you tell the difference between right and wrong." Dave gave them the body test to illustrate there are many factors at work in determining right versus wrong: including perhaps our own bodies. Dave had a few students hold one arm out straight, and the other hand held an object close to their chest. Dave pushed down on the free hand, while the student tried hard to push against it: when they held a cup water to their chest (something healthy), their arm was strong. When they held a cigarette to their chests, their arms couldn't resist Dave' s force, as if the body knew that cigarettes were bad for them. 

Tomorrow, we will be exploring a school that our kids may soon be calling their alma mater: Stephen F. Austin State University.

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Y-LINC Day Two: Fire and Water

Early birds put worms on hooks to go fishing on the Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Dave Clipson took several anglers out into the water to learn how to bait and cast.

Yum!

Anabelle, Jessica, Michele, and Tiffany (left to right)

Taking the bore out of chore, one spritz at a time...

Two of our campers made breakfast for everyone: Huevos Rancheros, out on the open fire. Teams were assigned to wash dishes, and they did it without complaint (one might even say they had fun doing it).

"Paddle faster! I hear banjos!"

Island life...

Then we explored a small island within Lake Sam Rayburn. Our campers went there by kayak and canoe, wearing life jackets and looking out for each other. Even when a pair of campers in a two-seater kayak were struggling to keep up, two of their fellow campers went back and helped them make it the rest of the way. They swam in the shallow waters around the island, with an osprey nest not too far in the distance. We left the island as clean we found it.

Julio made it to the island first, though he had the hardest
time with his kayak.

Swimming in Sam Rayburn

Over lunch, Dale Snyder, the Fire Management Supervisor for the Angelina and Sabine National Forests discussed fire management, the rigors of being a wildland firefighter for 22 years, how to stay safe and hydrated in an outdoor setting, and many other topics. Our campers showed their interest with nearly an hour's worth of questions.

"We match!"

Later, our campers learned another valuable outdoor skill: fire-building. The participants were broken into four teams, each led by a Y-LINC alum. Each team did their best to gather kindling, twigs, and small branches, and when they had finished, they were given a single match. The team who could light a fire that would last 5 minutes with that one match was the winner; Tracy, Tiffany, and Michele won first prize, a magnesium fire starter.

Dave took some of the campers on a tour of the surrounding area and they saw an albino doe that had been reported in the area. When they got back to camp, our students colored and cut-out their own "Flat Woodsy" (like the famous Flat Stanley educator tool). They will be posing with these Flat Woodsy's at various points in their journeys tomorrow, and each night we will celebrate the most creative pose.

To finish off the evening, John Boyette, a District Forester with the Texas Forest Service, taught our campers how to do one of the more popular Project Learning Tree activities: Tree Factory. Tommorow they will rise early to go to Ratcliff State Park and Treetops Learning center.

Of course Superman and Batman would be the cambium.

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