PLT GreenSchools! YLINC 2014 Day One

It's like a holiday present to the high school pupils of Houston! The U.S Forest Service, the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC), the Friends of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas-Latino Legacy (FNFGT), Stephen F. Austin State University – Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, the Texas A&M Forest Service, Houston Independent School District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service were proud to give the gift of the outdoors to 12 Stephen F. Austin High School students. They got to start 2014 off right with a very special Project Learning Tree GreenSchools! Youth Leadership in Nature Challenge (Y-LINC)! 

Y-LINC has been a FNFGT program for 5 years, in which high school students that otherwise may never have a chance to go out in nature, have an opportunity to spend a week in the middle of the great outdoors. The adventurers camp, talk to experts in the fields of natural resource management, learn how to build fires, cook s'mores, help the community with service learning projects and much more. This year, however, FNFGT has integrated our work with Project Learning Tree GreenSchools!, a program that helps students devise projects that reduce their school's impact on the environment. FNFGT is currently engaged in an multi-year partnership with the NUCFAC to create networks of GreenSchools! that improve not just the school’s environment, but also their surrounding community, while emphasizing the importance of urban forests. Our partnership, called GreenSchools!: a Model for Green Communities will develop techniques and models that will help other communities across the nation to grow their own GreenSchools! networks, which are being titled, GreenSchool! Greenbelts.

Our twelve kids, all over-achievers and big believers, come from Stephen F. Austin High School, one of our most active schools in the Houston ISD East End GreenSchools! GreenBelt. We have offered them Y-LINC as a way for them to gain more outdoor and leadership skills, build professional networks, and make them aware of the possibilities that nature offers them in their careers. This fresh perspective may help them do bigger and more impactful GreenSchools! projects back at their campus!

The first stop was the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest near Nacogdoches, Texas. Stephen F. Austin State University and the U.S. Forest Service cooperatively manage the forest as a place to conduct research in the fields of forestry and conservation. The Experimental Forest makes a perfect home for the Natural Resource Conservation Service's (NRCS) East Texas Plant Materials Center (PMC).

Camper Emerson Hernandez plants wildflower 

seed in a transplanter pot at the NRCS

Our kids learned from Alan Shadow, NRCS Agronomist and East Texas PMC Manager, that the East Texas PMC determines the plant species best able to solve local conservation issues, such as declining wildlife habitat, energy demands and the recent honeybee colony collapse disorder crisis. Their exhaustive research creates a library of knowledge that wildlife managers, foresters, environmental scientists and private landowners can access in order to pick the right plant for the job. Mr. Shadow gave the Y-LINC campers the ten-dollar tour, showing them the NRCS's specialized planter, a massive combine, a crop roller, transplanter and other muscular machines that let the NRCS do their valuable work on a picayune budget.

After the tour, Samuel Camarillo, a Graduate Student in the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University, led the caravan on a dendrology stroll through the meandering interpretive trails of the Experimental Forest. If they didn't know before, our kids now know that Yaupon Holly was a Native American medicine, Carolina Basswood twigs can be made into tough rope, burning Poison Ivy can create a deadly smoke, Hercules Club (Toothache Tree) can numb the mouth, American Black Elderberry makes a rich jam, White Oak acorns are edible when carefully prepared, Devil's walking-stick was used to make a prickly fence, Blackberries are plentiful in March and Sassafras was the traditional flavoring of root beer. Sam's thesis at ATCOFA involves creating a model to predict where the Chinese Tallow tree grows best, in order to know where best to combat the invasive tree. We wish him luck with his crucial work.

Sam Camarillo, SFA Forestry Grad Student, 

owns the basswood twig as he turns wood into rope.

The student adventurers beat a path, via automobile, to SFASU, to hear from Ryan Horn from SFA's Admissions Office. Ryan encouraged the students to pursue a degree at a university, and pointed them to information on the SAT scores they need to achieve to be accepted to SFA and the financial aid resources that help them pay for their degree. Horn said that SFA provides a very personalized educational experience to its students, due to its small classes and stand-alone nature. Members of the Stephen F. Austin High Cheer team, Austin Pride, many of whom were participating in the Winter Y-LINC, gave Horn and Mr. John Sperry a cheer straight from their school.

Mr. John Sperry, ATCOFA's Undergraduate Adviser and Recruiter, introduced the campers to the dozens of career paths and degrees available at ATCOFA, including (but not limited to) Wildlife Management, Forestry, Environmental Science, Horticulture and Spatial Science.

Dr. I-Kuai Hung, Professor of Geographic Information Systems, prefaced to students the high-tech field of Spatial Science: the computer-based discipline that develops map products like Google Earth, crime density maps, optimal Black Bear habitat maps, etc. Spatial Science also has everything to do with GPS, satellites, and meteorology. Its one of the fastest growing fields and ATCOFA is a well-recognized training center for the GIS experts of the future.

Campers shot more lasers at Dr. I-Kaui Hung's Spatial Science presentation than your average space opera

Stephen F. Austin High School gives a cheer at Stephen F. Austin State University.

The campers returned to camp for hot venison chili and rice, cooked with love by Lyndi Long, a former FNFGT program presenter, who now educates hundreds of children at a museum in San Antonio. Lyndi comes back each year to Y-LINC as a volunteer. They then met with their team leaders: Sam Camarillo, Arianna Berdote (a SFA Wildlife Management Undergrad), Charlie Jordan (a SFA Forest Recreation Management Undergrad) and Andre Saenz (a SFA Wildlife Management Undergrad and employee of the Texas A&M Forest Service), and split up into their groups. Texas A&M Forest Service District Forester III, Texas Project Learning Tree Co-Coordinator and our long-time friend, John Boyette, provided presentations on the growing (literally) field of urban forestry and taught kids the great mystery of how trees work!

Tomorrow, we will return to SFASU to hear from more SFASU forestry giants! Be sure to check FNFGT out on Facebook, on Twitter (@FriendsNFGT, #YLINC2014) and our photo albums on Flickr and our new Google+ page !