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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