Transcript
Episode 56 - Branching Out: Youth & Forestry in Focus
Introduction to the Podcast
[00:00:00] Lauren Grand: From the Oregon State University's Extension Service, you are listening to In the Woods with the Forestry and Natural Resources Program. This podcast brings the forest to listeners by sharing the stories and voices of forest scientists, land managers, and enthusiastic members of the public. Each episode, we will bring you research and science based information that aims to offer some insight into what we know and are still learning about forest science and management.
Stick around to discover a new topic related to forests on each episode.
Thank you for joining us on another episode of in the woods.
Meet Your Hosts: Lauren and Trinity
[00:00:35] Lauren Grand: I'm Lauren grand, Oregon extension, forester, and associate professor of practice in Oregon state universities, college of forestry, and I'll be your host today for today's episode.
We're going to talk all about youth and education with forestry programs. And by the end of the episode, we're really hoping that you'll learn a little bit more about how we approach. Education around forests and forest ecosystems for students in the K through 12 programs. And within the various realms of forestry.
Guest Introduction: Nancy Geier
[00:01:05] Lauren Grand: So I'm really excited today to have on the podcast, Nancy Geier. And Nancy, I have the pleasure of knowing really well through volunteering for a program that she works with that I'm sure she'll mention today. Welcome to the podcast, Nancy. Good to be here. Thank you for inviting me. And today we have an extra special episode because we have a special guest host with me today, Trinity Longheim.
Say hello, Trinity.
[00:01:30] Trinitie Long-Hindman: Hi, thank you, Lauren. I'm happy to be here. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you're doing with OSU Extension, Trinity. I'm working with OSU Extension this summer, and this week I started working with Lauren and Forestry, and I'm happy to be here and got to host this, today's podcast.
[00:01:45] Lauren Grand: Thanks Trinity. Nancy. Yeah, again, thank you so much. Nancy works with youth and works with Forestry, and so she's going to talk to us a little bit more about what we're going to get to today. So, Trinity, can you ask our first question? Sure. Okay.
Nancy's Journey into Forestry Education
[00:01:59] Trinitie Long-Hindman: Hey, Nancy, could you tell us about your background in forestry education, how you became interested in this field?
[00:02:04] Nancy Geyer: Well, sure. I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and for most people that would mean that I had a childhood spent hunting and fishing and doing the great outdoors. In reality, I grew up in the suburbs. I was within walking distance of a Taco Bell. No, I'm sorry, a Burger King. I was within walking distance of Burger King.
So I was very much a city girl. My dad liked fishing, and we would go skiing sometimes. But it wasn't as if we spent every summer out backpacking. My most favorite outdoor adventures tended to happen in my backyard. But I liked being outside and growing up in a place where it was dark for most of the winter.
You watched a fair amount of TV and I loved the nature shows. Loved the nature shows on PBS. I watched them all and that's where I decided that I wanted to do something in natural resources, even though I didn't really know anybody who worked in natural resources. My dad worked for the airport and my mom was an elementary school secretary, but I decided by golly, that's what I was going to do.
Now, my mom made the decision that my sister and I had to go to school out of state. We had to leave Alaska and go to a real state, one that had highways and taxes and seasons. So she said I had to leave and so then I was literally looking at catalogs of all these schools and I landed on Colorado State University.
I thought, well, they have a natural resources program. I guess I'll go there. So I left to go to school at Colorado State University and I went in as a natural resources generalist. I had no idea what I was going to do. For And I landed on wildlife biology as a major and I really enjoyed it. I just, I had such a good experience, but I figured out pretty early that it just wasn't, it wasn't something that I wanted to do in the field, like I didn't want to be a researcher and I really couldn't see myself being a, like a park ranger or anything like that.
And as I'm, as many young people do, fumbling through, what is it that I want to do? I ended up taking a class with a professor by the name of Eugene Decker, who was a communications person. His specialty was public relations in natural resources. His joke was that he got his Ph. D. in. Combat conservation, because he was a person who would come in when there were these very contentious disagreements between communities and agencies on how land was being managed or what decisions were being made about wildlife.
And so his whole approach was on communication and education and helping people come together. And it was through having Professor Decker eventually becoming my advisor that I realized that I was very interested in the communication and education side. Of natural resources and he gave me the best advice I ever got in college Which was if you are genuinely interested in doing education Get your teaching license because you need to understand what's happening in schools If you're going to work with schools So I did I got my teaching license in biology and natural resources in the program at the time was uh, just changing from a Certificate to a licensure program and so I was licensed in You Uh, secondary science.
So that's middle and high school. And I did my student teaching in junior high. And didn't really do anything with natural resources, but I will tell you that was some of the best advice I ever got, because it really helped me understand lesson planning and thinking about different teaching styles to meet different learning styles and the whole gamut of how do you effectively communicate with students.
So, here I now am 5 years later, I was a 5 year student. It was not easy incorporating a teaching degree and with a wildlife degree, and I'm thinking, what am I going to do now? And I thought, well. I think I want to change direction from wildlife to forestry. I wanted to get that side as well. So I did, uh, reached out to several different schools, and I ended up getting a master's program at Oregon State University with Ed Jensen in the, what was a relatively new program, I think they called it forestry with an emphasis on education and extension.
I think the idea behind the degree program was to help train people to then become extension agents, but I'm not sure how many of my peers went on to do that. But for me, it was an opportunity to learn more about forestry, that side, natural resources, and that really laid the foundation of my professional life.
So I did the most logical thing, which was join the Peace Corps, but so, I didn't even go get a real job, so I joined the Peace Corps, and I landed in Madagascar, and I was there for two and a half years, and I learned, from that experience, I learned a lot about communities and forests, because you're talking about a place where truly forests are more than just a beautiful place to hike.
It's people's food source. It's people's livelihood and so I got a much stronger appreciation of that relationship. So, after 2 years, I came back and I ended up in Roseburg and I worked briefly for the extension service, helping put together slide shows for master woodland manager programs. And then I did some teaching at a school for troubled teenagers, the Woolley Center was helping kids who were not successful at the high school get their degrees.
And then eventually ended up with a job at the Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers. At the time, it was called the Umpqua Basin Watershed Council, doing their, I call them their very, writing their, I, what I did is I wrote their very long, extremely boring documents about fish habitat and water quality. for listening.
I wrote 11 of them, a lot of these documents, but what was great about the job is I was, I had to learn about a watershed and then I had to do these public meetings to educate that community group about what I was writing about. So, I had to learn about water quality parameters, and then I had to talk to a group of community members about water quality parameters and I found that to be the best part of the job.
Was the process of helping the community understand why is this important? Why do we care about pH levels and streams? How do riparian areas help influence water quality and fish habitat? Throughout my time with the Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers, I was able to build on that education background by doing more of their educational programs.
I also ended up doing some grant writing. And then I worked only part time for them for a long, long period, mostly on contract, before I landed my job. My current job with Forest Aid Forever as a full time, I'm sorry to speak, as a part time forestry educator But it is my only job right now. That's I don't know if that's too much or not enough But that's how I got where I am today.
[00:09:00] Trinitie Long-Hindman: So then what motivated you to working with youth?
[00:09:04] Nancy Geyer: I actually just like educating people, regardless of the age. It happens to be with Forest Today and Forever that we have two educators. We have Lindsey Reeves, who is mostly interested in educating the adult audience. So I took over her position doing youth education.
But among the things I really like about working with kids, particularly middle school kids, is they just have such a delightful sense of humor. They're still fun, and they still giggle, and they still get really excited about things like, you find a lizard and you show it to them, and they're like, that's so wonderful, it's a lizard.
So I love that energy. So I would say I like educating all age groups, but I like the enthusiasm and the silliness of kids better than the seriousness and stoicism of adults.
[00:09:49] Lauren Grand: Yes, kids can be very silly and there are lots of fun to, there are lots of fun to teach, especially, yeah, in that middle school age where they're super awkward too, like making that transition.
I feel like it's fun because you get to be awkward. You get to tap into that awkward middle schooler self too and be silly with them. It's really fun.
The Importance of Fun in Education
[00:10:11] Lauren Grand: Speaking of being silly and talking about lizards, can you tell us a little bit more about how you approach teaching? What's your approach is with teaching youth, specifically in forestry and environmental conservation?
[00:10:23] Nancy Geyer: Well, I often tell my boss, Beth Crisco, never underestimate the importance of just having some fun, of doing things that are just fun for kids. And I think a wonderful example, Lauren, is when you came out during our forestry camp with high school kids and we're marking trees. And you had them, we put the chalk in socks, and the kids are whacking the tree with the sock filled with chalk, and of course chalk is going everywhere.
I mean, obviously there were other ways to mark trees, and that was a great way because eventually that chalk is going to come off. But it was just fun. The kids were having a good time doing it. And so we, I often remind Beth when we're planning things out, I say, Beth, we have to make sure that we incorporate the element of fun.
because that's so memorable to kids and just such a wonderful way of engaging them. So certainly for me, fun is always important. And then something else I try very hard to do is I think sometimes I'm saying this from experience and I'll just tell you the story. That was a student at the elementary school that my, my girls attended where they had an educator who came in from one of the local watershed councils here in Lane County to do a program.
And my husband works in forestry, he works for forest products and part of this presentation ended up. My daughter came home and she was in the 5th grade and said that this. Educator was saying things that made her question. Was her dad doing the wrong thing by being in forestry? And then there was some questions about what's wrong with our aquifer.
This person was saying that. We need to be preserving water because we have to protect our aquifers and she wasn't even sure what an aquifer even was and it inspired her to write a letter to this Watershed Council saying, I don't understand why you're telling me that forestry is bad. That's not no, I think my dad does a good job.
And I, it's made me realize that whether intentional or not, sometimes environmental educators. Find themselves teaching hopelessness and fear and shame and blame when they're talking about how we manage our environment.
Positive and Productive Environmental Education
[00:12:39] Nancy Geyer: And I try very hard to stay away from that. I do not teach hopelessness and fear. I try to focus on what's positive, what's productive, what progress is being made.
Without pointing the finger of blame at previous generations for what they've done or trying to shame any group of people for having failed to do the right thing. I think it's very important when you're dealing with kids to keep it positive, keep it moving forward, keep them thinking ahead and not dwelling on the past because they can't do anything about that.
So let's keep it positive, let's keep it productive, let's focus on progress. So that is really how I focus my education programs.
[00:13:19] Lauren Grand: Yeah, that's great. If you think about connection and sense of place and enjoying the environment around you, you can also start to consider, yeah, like they get that connection to the environment and think about how can I keep this a sustainable place, a healthy place where I get to recreate and be in and to have it be positive.
That's, that's really good outlook. And I think. having kids feel like it was an enjoyable experience means that it's something that they want to continue learning about and being a part of.
[00:13:51] Nancy Geyer: And I should say, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but to the credit of the Watershed Council that my daughter wrote the letter to, they did bring in, I think it was even Forest Today and Forever before I was working there, they brought them in to do some lessons with this educator about forestry.
So that person understood the bigger picture of forestry in Oregon. And if I remember right, and I apologize that I didn't. I'm not, I don't think their educator came from Oregon, so I think she was coming with some outside. impressions of what forestry is. The key is that when you're talking to kids in rural Oregon, many have family members in forestry and natural resources.
You don't want to put a negative spin to that. That's their family. Keep it positive. Keep it showing progress.
[00:14:33] Lauren Grand: And our hope is that they learn to make those decisions for themselves, right? Yes. We want to teach them the facts and then hope that they can make the decision that feels right to them.
[00:14:43] Nancy Geyer: Absolutely. And don't downplay what happened in the past, we're just not blaming and shaming anyone for it.
Memorable Teaching Moments
[00:14:51] Trinitie Long-Hindman: Could you share an example or a memorable classroom or field experience that had a significant impact on your students understanding of forestry?
[00:14:59] Nancy Geyer: Sure. I, a while ago, came up with a little game. It's called, I call it the Forest Facts Game. It's literally, it's 12 cards that ask a question that comes out of Ofri's yearly list of forest facts.
And it's a question, so there's 12 cards, and I have 13 numbers. So 12 correct numbers and one that's a distractor. So just as an example, one of my questions will be, Amount of Oregon's timber harvesting that occurs on privately owned forest land and of the number set. 1 of them is 76. that's the correct answer.
So, I put this game together to be the final thing we did in a program I call what is good jobs in the working for a sector in which through this program, it's a slide show program that I do in high school classes. Almost every single question is touched on during the slideshow. So I joke with them and I say, so now we're going to have a quiz and I bring out this four facts game.
And it's always very delightful how many of the kids were listening and got many of the questions correct. And then, of course, you have the ones who are paying no attention whatsoever. No idea what numbers are correct. But I took that game and I'm now applying it differently. And one of my more memorable events was I was invited to talk to a camp.
Here in Lane County, where they have a bunch of their camp counselors come in and many of whom, most of whom are not from Oregon. And this there's a, there was a reason why I was invited to come talk to them. I was informed that they've had camp counselors who will say things like, well, it's very important that we not cut down too many trees.
As part of their conversations on caring for creation. It's a Christian camp. And so the thought was, these are folks who are not from Oregon. These camp counselors probably ought to know about where they are because this camp is in a coast forest. And so they should probably know what's around them. So I came to this camp and the first thing I did was have them play the forest facts game.
Of course, keep in mind. I hadn't given them the slideshow, so they have no idea what the answers to these cards are. And it was very interesting to see how many of these young adults, who were probably, I'd say, 18 to 23 years old, who had started out by saying they felt like, you know, they knew a lot about forestry, had no idea what the answers were to these questions.
And it inspired such interesting conversation around the answers. And then I proceeded to go and do my actual lesson with them, which was about an hour and a half. And at the end, I felt like this group of students. Young adults had a far greater appreciation for what they were seeing around them and where they were and the reality of things like forest fire and I think the forest facts game might have been a little bit humbling to some of these folks that they didn't know what they thought they knew and I did that same game one time with a group of adults who were all in forestry families and they had a good time recognizing how much they don't know either.
So I would say that that's been, that's been a fun tool. Either as an evaluation of a lesson and then just to show people there's a whole lot more to forestry Than meets the eye.
[00:18:22] Lauren Grand: Yeah, that's so fun. And I bet even you know, I feel like even some of us Professionals in the forestry field could have trouble answering some of those questions Yeah, it would be humbling for sure But I really like that the opportunity that the students came eventually with an open mind to learn a little bit more and that's really exciting And it probably feels really good as an educator to know that Hey, I might've made a difference and having them look around and just.
That's one of the things that I really like too about, about education in general is that you get to walk out and see how someone's appreciation and view for the environment around them changes and to be more excited just to know more about what's going on around them.
[00:19:04] Nancy Geyer: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:19:06] Lauren Grand: Okay.
Integrating Forestry into School Curriculum
[00:19:06] Lauren Grand: Can you share with us what are the most exciting opportunities that you can think of for integrating forestry and education into maybe our school curriculum or into other community programs?
[00:19:18] Nancy Geyer: Well, what I have found is students, there's two things that I have seen that students are very interested in. They want to know more about what they can do in regarding climate change. And I have found that to be a wonderful opening to talk to students about wood products. And just recently at the camp where Lauren, you were helping with us, a lot of students don't.
Really think about, okay, what is photosynthesis? Photosynthesis is the process by which plants take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. And that carbon in trees is what becomes the wood. So, 50 percent of wood by dry weight is carbon and therefore wood is the only building material that is a carbon sequester.
If you look at it from the time it goes into the ground, so that lumber being in your home. Overall, over that whole period of time, more carbon was taken out of the atmosphere by the growth of the tree, then was contributed back to the atmosphere through the logging and the manufacturing process. And a lot of students really didn't don't know that that they're looking for alternatives to building material.
Like, we can build with concrete, or we can build a steel, but those are carbon contributors, not carbon sequesters. And so I have found a lot of. Interest among kids and then it's kind of a renewed sense of appreciation of wood products. When I go through what are some wood products you use every day?
Most young kids come up with the obvious ones like paper and pencils and tables and windows and window frames and all that. But I talk about what is particle board? Have you ever seen particle board? Many of the kids will say no. Well, it's all over your house, kids. You may not see particle board, but believe me, you have it in your home.
It's in your furniture. It might be in your countertops. Particle board is everywhere, and I like sharing with them that Particle board is one of the many products we make out of the wood residuals, the wood that is left over in the mill that is not used to make something like lumber. It's basically waste wood that we then take that waste wood and we do something productive with it.
And to show them that. Wood really is an amazing material to build homes with and to make a whole wide variety of products. And one of my favorite slides in my Wood is Good program is a picture of transparent wood. Literally, it looks like a slide from chemistry class. But it is a little thin film of wood that is completely clear.
It's balsa, and it's only been around since I think 2000, excuse me, yeah, 2018. And I don't know if we're going to have wood windows in the next 20 years, but it's exciting to think that wood can be used possibly to make paint. Windows someday and just that there is such a, a wonderful world of forest products of all this material and that we are using wood for that.
We don't even think about and yet it is a renewable resource and one that Oregon is leading the way in growing trees and creating these new products and how we can make better use of wood. So, for me, the climate change angle moving into wood as a renewable natural product for building. And supplies is to me very exciting.
And then the other one is fire. Kids are always, always interested in knowing more about why are the fire so bad? Why is the smoke so bad? And so using the history of fire management in the United States to talk about how we got to where we are today and the possible role that active force management can have in helping with fires is another, I think, way that we can incorporate forestry education.
Advice for Aspiring Forestry Educators
[00:23:00] Trinitie Long-Hindman: So, what advice would you give to educators who want to incorporate more forestry education into their teaching?
[00:23:06] Nancy Geyer: Well, the biggest thing is there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. There are so many good, solid programs out there. OFRI has wonderful resources. The Natural Resources Education Program and their Project WET and Project WILD and Project Learning Treatment have a wonderful curriculum that's been vetted for years.
Our own Forest Today and Forever, we have our forest science program. Field day curriculum that is used mostly in Western Oregon, and we have a field trip that kids who are close enough to to Eugene can participate in. But even that curriculum could be used beyond Lane County and even on the east side.
There, there are solid, good, well vetted programs out there, materials out there that teachers can use. But I would also advise teachers to be careful about bias across the board. Make sure that when you are looking over your materials, you think about both sides of the picture. Because that is important that students get a full, a full picture of both sides of the conversation.
And there's a lot of controversy over how we manage for us, and students should understand both sides of those controversies. Thank you. So that they can make, as Lauren said earlier, their own decisions and own, form their own opinions as to what they, how they feel we should be moving forward in our enforcement management.
[00:24:18] Lauren Grand: Okay, and you talked about this a little bit earlier as to some of the best advice that you got by a mentor of yours, but maybe we want to repeat that again, since it was such good advice and then any additional advice you have on, based on your experience about what skills or knowledge you think that are important for young people who are interested in.
Coming in and being an environmental or forestry educator in, in their future.
[00:24:42] Nancy Geyer: My advice to people who want to go into natural resources education is first make sure to have experience in a school, either as a volunteer or if you can get your teaching license or something where you are seeing what it is that, uh, school teachers are dealing with.
And I don't mean that in a negative way. It's just as we as adults tend to see schools As it was when we were in school and schools change very quickly policies change approaches change in Knowing what those changes are so that you can adapt your lessons to accommodate what schools are teaching now I think is very important and the best way to do that is to be active in a school as a volunteer for me I do substitute teaching and it's been a wonderful way To experience what is going on in schools now, and a great example of that is after the pandemic, recognizing that students who had been isolated.
For a year and had been told when they were back in the school that they are not allowed to touch each other's things. They're not allowed to change desks. They're not allowed to share objects. When they came to the field for our forest field day season and came out to a bone and tree farm where they were doing a field trip, we had to remind our volunteers that these students are not used to touching things.
They haven't been doing that for a year. So to be patient and to be kind to remember that these kids have been told hands to yourself, and you have to encourage them gently that it's okay to get up and touch the stream table. It's okay to stand close to each other. You can let go of that rigid rules that they were following the classroom.
We had let that go. It's now time to return to to how we had been before the pandemic. So, experience in the classroom, I think is important. And then the other one is to remember that. Forests don't exist independently of people that people have used forests have needed forests have managed forests here in Oregon for as long as there have been people and you have to be careful about.
Having the impression or taking an approach that our job is to protect forests from people is what I'm trying to say. That forests are an economic resource for people. They are a recreational resource. They're a spiritual resource. People have used forests for as long as we've had people and you can't exclude them from your, from your messages.
People are part of the forest. And to remember that when you're talking to kids, and don't underestimate, you know, that the importance of the economy that we have very, we have a growing population that needs wood products, wood comes from forests, and to remember that there needs to be a balance between protecting natural areas as well as providing for the people who need those resources.
The Future of Forestry Education
[00:27:33] Trinitie Long-Hindman: So, Nancy, where do you see the future of forestry education heading? What developments or changes do you anticipate?
[00:27:39] Nancy Geyer: Well, certainly, I think technology is huge. Lauren's VR glasses project that she's working on to be able to have a way of taking to classrooms, goggles for kids can experience what it's like to be working as a logger.
I was recently got to experience the logging simulation up at Oregon State University. I can't remember his name is Kevin Lyons program where kids get to experience. What it's like to run the harvester in a log truck. We did that for our forestry camp, and it was really fun to see how we had just taken these students to watch a thinning operation where there was a harvester there and there was a log truck.
And it looks so easy. How the, the harvester was grabbing a tree and trimming it down and cutting it and putting it on the side. And it all just went bam, bam, bam. So fast. And then we put them in front of the screen doing a simulation of this and they were terrible.
[00:28:30] Lauren Grand: I was going to ask you if you tried it because I've tried it and I could never be a log truck driver.
I could not get that log in the truck for the life of me.
[00:28:38] Nancy Geyer: It was too much fun watching those kids try. I didn't actually try it for myself. I'm like, I'm not, there's no way I'm not good at regular video games. But it was interesting how there were some of our students, boy, they were locked and loaded.
They were going to figure it out. Boy howdy, they were not going to let those logs get away. So the technology to show kids that what may appear really easy when you watch somebody else do it is actually a really difficult skill that has to be learned. I think that's huge. I also think in other technology, drones, you know, I think are going to be something that we can make more use of in forestry education.
Other types of GIS mapping. There's just all sorts of technology that we really need. Haven't incorporated, I think, as well as we could. And of course, technology is everywhere. And I think there's a misperception among students that forestry is not a sophisticated field technologically. And that's not true.
We actually have some pretty awesome technology and it's a, it's very important to what we do as a friend of mine said in the field and in the mill technology increases efficiency and reduces waste. So technology is really huge. So I also see forestry education. Tapping more into the interest that students have with climate change.
I really think that promoting the value of wood products as a sustainable resource is something that I think we're really trying to build on. And then here again in Oregon, doing more with educating around fire. Because I think that's, uh, for a lot of kids, it's just such a big question. What's going on?
Why is it so smoky? Grandpa said it wasn't like this. Why is that? So, I think technology, I think climate change, and I think understanding forest fire are some of the directions that we are moving towards in forestry education. But that's just me, and I am one of many, many forestry educators out there, and I'm sure we all have our own approaches to forestry education.
And own opinions. What do you think, Lauren? What do you think is the future of forestry education?
[00:30:37] Lauren Grand: Uh, well, you know, you're putting me on the spot.
[00:30:39] Nancy Geyer: I am.
[00:30:41] Lauren Grand: No, I think you had to have some really good ideas. I really like. Though we're using a lot more technology and getting kids more access through VR technology, I still think that incorporating that outside component and finding ways to get students outside and really exploring and coming up with solutions is going to continue to be really important in the classroom.
But I don't know, I guess I dodged your question.
[00:31:12] Nancy Geyer: We do that already. You have a really good point that we can never eliminate the, just the value of going outside and we did have a fun project we did during our forest day and forever did the forestry camp. And I didn't explain this earlier. So I will now that the forestry camp was done in cooperation with the 4J school district.
That's Eugene. We had students from Sheldon High School, South Eugene and Churchill who spent a week with us. Basically six to eight hours a day, depending on what we were doing, learning about forestry. And one of our first activities was we decided, okay, what's the first thing you have to know if you're going to be in forestry?
Well, you have to be able to identify trees. You have to know what they are. So we did that. We could have just done a typical, take the branches, cut them off, put them on a table, give them a dichotomous key, have them figure out what they are. But instead we decided to try it via geocaching, something that.
Me and my boss, Beth, know nothing about at all, so we came into an adventure of how do you incorporate geocaching, which is something we've heard of, but never done before. Well, thankfully, there was a wonderful teacher at Hamlin Middle School named Jen Butler, who is quite the avid geocacher, and she agreed to help us.
And so we were able to get 10 GPS units. And have geocache locations for trees at Bowman tree farm, put on these units so that the kids got to have the fun of using the electronic map and then a compass and go out in groups and find the trees in the forest and then I'd be them and then wander off to find the next tree.
And just that incorporation of. Of something interesting with technology into the can be very ho hum process of tree identification was really fun. We had a good time with that and they seemed to really enjoy the activity. So those kinds of time technology into outdoor education in an interesting way I think is is very powerful and I think there would be some purists who would say you shouldn't have any technology when you're out in the woods.
You know we teach these kids to put technology down and I get that but for the kids that we had it was really fun and we had a good time with it.
[00:33:12] Lauren Grand: Yeah, that sounds really fun. And I think it's really cool because you can also instill a sense of safety when being out in the woods and knowing where you are and how to use these tools to find your way, you know, not only to find trees, but find your way home.
But also this is kind of a skill and a fun thing that they can get into outside of the education piece. And yeah, you made it really fun. And could potentially link it to something that they can do in their everyday life that continues their own personal education, the environment and outside conservation opportunities and different, not only for us, but other environments that we have around.
So that's really cool. It was a really good idea. I hope the students enjoyed it.
[00:33:55] Nancy Geyer: They did. And I appreciate your comment about the safety factor. Jen Butler reminded us that we needed to make sure the kids know that although the compass might tell you to go sharply to the right, you need to look and decide, is that the smartest way to go?
Blindly following it is not a good idea. And I think that's a skill a lot of drivers need to learn, is don't just blindly follow the GPS. Sometimes you have to stop. up and look and am I in a good place? Is this really the smartest way to do it?
[00:34:20] Lauren Grand: Nancy, we just had so much fun talking to you and hearing all your amazing stories about forestry and education.
I want to give you the opportunity. Is there anything that you want to say that you feel like you wanted to say that we Missed in our little interview,
[00:34:37] Nancy Geyer: I guess the only thing I would say is that I appreciate that there aren't a ton of jobs out there to be a full time forestry educator. I'm not a full time forestry educator.
My job is part time. And for where I am in my life, I'm very satisfied with that, but any educator, any teacher can incorporate forestry and natural resources education into what they do. And I think there's a lot of value to that. And I think that there are so many wonderful resources out there so you don't have to feel like teachers should not feel as if because they don't have a background in forestry.
They can't teach. Natural resources in the classroom, there are plenty of excellent resources for people to use that are very novice friendly. If you want to incorporate more about wildfire or climate change or, um, wood products into your curriculum, the information is out there.
[00:35:26] Lauren Grand: Yeah, great. Thank you. And hopefully you can share some of those resources with us a little bit later.
We'll come back and make you answer our lightning round questions that we make everybody answer. Hopefully they're not too bad. I think not, but yeah, I just really appreciate you coming in and chatting. I thank you so much Trinity for being our guest host today. And I just learned so much and I just thought that you had really great stories to share.
And I always think about, okay, we have to do hands on activities when we're teaching. With adults and with kids especially but also you like to do it with adults But I think the key part that I really took away from this in addition to that is to really make it fun Like not just okay We're gonna take a break from me talking at you to do this little activity But actually make it a fun activity that creates an impact that they can take away I think you're so right that they learn more from that.
So Wonderful. Thank you. So as You If you are listening today, if any other questions came up that we didn't cover on our topic related to youth education in forestry, feel free to leave us a voicemail, send us a chat or a message and let us know what you want to learn. Visit our website at inthewoodspodcast.
com. To tell us everything.
Okay.
Lightning Round: Fun Facts About Our Guests
[00:36:48] Lauren Grand: Well, now it's my turn to get to know a little bit more about you personally, Nancy, and I'm going to toss in Trinity here because she was an excellent co host today and helped organize this entire podcast. So I'm going to get to know a little bit more about our two special guests today. And our first question that we always ask Nancy, we'll start with you.
What's your favorite treat?
[00:37:10] Nancy Geyer: I would say right now my favorite tree has to be the Oregon ash. And that's because where I live, we were hit harder than anybody during the ice storm. And I have on our property, the back part is Oregon ash grove. And they just got annihilated. After that ice storm, it looked like we had a forest of pencils.
Just stems straight up everything. Every single tree we had broke off by about a third to two thirds. And in looking at this poor, sad forest right after the ice storm and thinking, what is going to happen? And now I go out there and what an amazingly resilient tree, all these little sprouts coming out. I mean, they look like, what did they call them?
The truffle of trees from the Lorax, the most ridiculous looking trees now, but the fact that they came back with such force and some of them are still putting out leaves, even though the tree is completely horizontal. It's If not pointing downward is pretty impressive. So I'm going to give it to the Oregon ash.
Quite the impressive tree.
[00:38:08] Lauren Grand: All right, well, let's hold it on. I like it. Okay, Trinity, what about you?
[00:38:14] Trinitie Long-Hindman: I would say my favorite tree is a cedar tree. I love the smell of cedar and growing up on my family's property, we're filled with them.
[00:38:22] Lauren Grand: Yes, gotta love the throwback to the nostalgic tree for sure. Um, Nancy, what's the most interesting thing that you bring with you?
I usually say in the field. Well, I guess that applies to you. So maybe to the classroom or in the field when you're out and about doing education.
[00:38:38] Nancy Geyer: Well, I have a bin of just random supplies. And my new favorite item is I made a a tree seedling because I always had to whenever I was in the woods or I was doing an outdoor program and I needed to show kids a tree seedling I'd have to find a tree seedling and then of course this one tree seedling would be used for days on end and then it's looking sad and I'm feeling like I'm killing this poor little baby tree so I thought I'm going to make one.
So I went out and found at just a hardware store a dryer brush, a dryer, like a bottle brush, that's the perfect cone shape, but it's about a foot and a half long. Well, I painted it green, and I added some yarn roots, and by golly, it looks quite a bit like a tree seedling. I'm thinking about getting a second one to put googly eyes on, so that when I deal with really little the googly eye.
But that's my favorite thing. It's just been so handy and it's wonderful to be able to show a, a seedling without having to kill a little baby tree.
[00:39:41] Lauren Grand: That's so cute. I have to, you have to send me a picture of that.
[00:39:44] Nancy Geyer: I will.
[00:39:46] Lauren Grand: Okay. Trinity, what do you like to
[00:39:48] Trinitie Long-Hindman: tag along with you when you work
[00:39:49] Lauren Grand: with youth?
[00:39:50] Trinitie Long-Hindman: Whenever I work with kids. I always have like a handshake thing, especially since like, post pandemics, we're not supposed to shake hands and you're like, I always give them an elbow or something, or I do the snail. It's like, when you go in for a fist bump, and then you just have 1 hand go up as a 2 and so the kids love it every time.
[00:40:09] Lauren Grand: That's awesome. Well, that's really cute. Yeah. Okay. And then the last question that we have always is Nancy. Can you share with us any resources that you could recommend to our listeners if they're interested in learning a little bit more about. Forestry education opportunities for youth, or if they want to dive a bit deeper into what programs are available around anywhere around the state.
[00:40:33] Nancy Geyer: Well, I certainly would have to give a shout out to Forest Today and Forever, who is who I work for and has the Forest Field Days curriculum. During the pandemic, Beth worked very hard. She's my boss. To create in some online resources for people to use. And I've been just delighted that we've had folks from Maine, the state of Maine who contacted us and said, hey, we're using your online resources.
So, if you're just interested in seeing the kinds of things that force today and forever offer, I would say, check out our website. Particularly the online resources for forest field days, they're very well done and super interesting for kids of all ages.
[00:41:09] Lauren Grand: Okay, great. Well, thank you so much again, Nancy. It was so wonderful having you on the podcast and I have the pleasure of getting to work with you a little bit at Fort with forest today and forever, but it was so great to learn a little bit more about you that I haven't had the chance to learn yet.
So thanks for sharing. And I'm so thrilled to have
[00:41:28] Nancy Geyer: Thank you for inviting me.
[00:41:29] Lauren Grand: Okay.
Conclusion and Credits
[00:41:30] Lauren Grand: Well, that wraps up another episode of In the Woods. We hope that you join us in another couple of weeks to learn more about Oregon's amazing forests. And until then, what's in your woods? The In the Woods podcast is produced by Lauren Grand, Jacob Putney, and Scott Levengood, who are all members of the Oregon State University Forestry and Natural Resources Extension team.
Other members of the team who've been involved in the podcast include Keri Berger, Kristin Jason O'Brien and Steven Fitzgerald. Episodes are edited and produced by Carrie Cantrell. Music for In the Woods was composed by Jeffrey Hino and graphic design was created by Christina Fryhoff. Funding for In the Woods is provided by Oregon State University, Forestry and Natural Resources Extension, the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, and the USDA Renewable Resources Extension Act funding.
We hope you enjoyed the episode and we can't wait to talk to you again next month. Until then, what's in your woods?
In this episode of 'In the Woods', host Lauren Grand discusses youth and education in forestry programs with guest Nancy Geyer. They delve into Nancy's journey into forestry education, starting from her childhood in Alaska to her academic pursuits at Colorado State University and Oregon State University. Nancy shares her experiences teaching various audiences, emphasizing the importance of making learning fun and positive, especially when educating about environmental conservation and forestry.
The episode highlights the use of technology in teaching, the significance of understanding forestry’s role in climate change, and provides guidance for educators wanting to incorporate forestry education into their curriculum. Additionally, Nancy and the episode’s co-host Trinity Longheim share personal anecdotes and educational strategies to engage students, particularly in rural Oregon. The podcast aims to inspire kids and promote a deeper understanding of forest science and management among young learners.
For more information and resources concerning this and other episodes, please go to In the Woods podcast.