Environmental camp teaches skills, life lessons

Canoe paddle in hand, there I was early Thursday floating in misty stillness along the shore of Lake Hannan, near Monroe.

From my seat at the stern — two boys also were in the boat — I learned about beaver dams. Our canoe was rafted up with seven others near a massive tangle of sticks, branches and mud. A teacher-naturalist in another canoe explained how the lake circled by woods would not exist were it not for beaver dams.

Did you know that except for humans, beavers are animals that most change their environment? Or that beavers live in families and have distinct jobs, including an engineer overseeing dam construction?

I didn't read that in books. I saw it in nature, up close. And I'll never forget it.

Last week, I spent two days and a night at Camp Hamilton, where my sixth-grade son's class was among groups from several schools attending a Catholic Youth Organization Environmental Education program.

I tagged along as teacher-naturalist Dan Rousseau led field studies. Long hikes were worth the tired feet and damp sweatshirts as kids learned how to tell a Western red cedar from a Douglas fir. In a wildlife lesson, Rousseau let students examine a collection of pelts. With field guides and tape measures, kids worked to figure out what types of animals the pelts were.

Rousseau spoke about hunting, and about how animals stay healthy when predators control populations.

I went to camp as a chaperone, a parent volunteer needed to stay with another mom in a cabin with eight girls. I expected to return with stories of late bedtimes and giggly girls — and I did.

More than that, I learned so much and had an incredible time. When I was in school, there was no such thing as environmental camp. Kids who get to go are fortunate, indeed.

“I'm a huge fan of experiential learning,” said Rousseau. “I believe if you're going to be learning about a tree, you should be able to touch it and see it. If you're learning about wetlands, you should see and smell and experience them.”

Rousseau, 22, has a degree in biology from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. He's too young to have much classroom experience, but after shadowing him for two days I recognized a natural born teacher. He kept fidgety kids interested and homesick kids engaged.

On a night hike under Wednesday's full moon, Rousseau pulled out a candle and covered one eye to tell a pirate story, then turned it into a lesson in night vision and nocturnal animals.

Environmental education is part of Washington's learning standards for students in kindergarten through high school. Gilda Wheeler supervises the Education for Environment and Sustainability program for the state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“Environmental education in Washington state is part of basic education,” Wheeler said Friday. It's taught in a variety of ways at all grade levels. Teachers have flexibility in how to meet the standards, and field experiences can be part of that. But Wheeler said camp is not required.

“Getting them out there can really be the spark that gets kids interested in science,” Wheeler said.

Bob Sotak, an Everett School District curriculum director focused largely on science, said some fifth-graders in the district have attended environmental camp. Camp Killoquah, near Stanwood, offers an environmental education program, and Sotak said there are others in the area.

Sotak said financial and cultural considerations can be barriers to overnight science camps, along with the classroom time crunch. While new science standards include the environment and sustainability, Sotak said it's difficult for teachers to carve out time for camp with all the testing and other requirements.

Everett students often take field trips to the district's Lively Environmental Center in Mill Creek, he said.

“Going to camp is a phenomenal opportunity,” Sotak said, but he added that “my prediction is there will be fewer kids going.”

I was lucky to get out there, in the woods and on the water, and learn something. Beyond knowledge, there were life lessons.

At a climbing wall in the woods, an instructor shouted solid advice good for all sorts of situations. A girl high on the wall was safe in a harness, but struggling to go higher.

“Look up, don't look down,” boomed the voice from below.



Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; muhlstein@heraldnet.com.