Earth Studies Session 4: Mammals & Tracking Comes to an end.

The Earth Studies session on Mammals & Tracking has just come to an end. We had many great days of tracking with all the fresh snow. A few warm afternoons allowed some muddy conditions for wildlife to impress their prints into which we often found frozen the next day . . . perfect for showing the details of wildlife identification through the use of track analysis!

Several areas where the snow we had about a month ago melted down kids were able to identify areas where deer had bedded down. When we examined these closely we even found some deer hair to identify and match up with the hides we have as teaching tools in the classroom. We also ran across a very interesting site where something had been killed and eaten. Although there were no bones or flesh left behind, we did find frozen blood, entrails and a lot of hair. From the hair and remains we think it may have been a raccoon, perhaps eaten by a bobcat or other predator. There were many days when these kids exclaimed that it had been the best time out to the park yet!

Winter Break Camp: Day One!

Winter Break Camp started out great with many veteran campers from previous camps this year and even some kids who have been coming for years!

Right away we geared up for cold, snowy fun as we have gotten a ton of snow at the Mountain Park this year. A quick snowshoe demo and we were off on a snowshoeing adventure in search of a great sledding hill.

Along the way we tossed a few snowballs and had a lot of laughs and even a few snowshoe humorous complications as it was some of these kids first time in, as one camper put it, "these fascinating contraptions."

We made our way to the meadow and made a huge maze of tracks to play tag and had snowball fights and built snow-crust castles that resembled Stonehenge.

Later we began a task that will take us all week to complete doing a little each day . . . carving out ice tunnels in the big mounds of hardened frozen snow piled up by the snowplows in the park over the last few weeks. We hope to connect all the tunnels and be able to slide down through them!

Dichotomous Keys & Trying Not To Freeze

It was a pretty cold week for Earth Studies students, but we managed to find some sunny places to sit and learn about Trees and Wildland Fires. In the tree portion of the day these kids learn how trees grow and the different parts of the trees anatomy as well as learning to identify the various trees in the Mountain Park. They also learn how to age the Ponderosa Pines of the park (without cutting them down and counting the rings).


In the fire portion of the day these students are taught about the Mason Gulch fire which came within 4 -1/2 miles of the Mountain Park. Most students found forest fires to be much larger and more destructive than they had previously imagined them to be.

One thing I noticed this week was that as the children did the Tree I.D. exercise they no longer seemed to notice the cold.

Tree I.D. combines a scavenger hunt element with the mystery of figuring out which of the six coniferous trees in the park is which. Students use a dichotomous key designed for the trees found in the Mountain Park; by examining the trees closely to answer the series of questions on the key they eventually arrive at the answer.

After doing about nine trees these kids could identify some trees just by looking at them at a relative distance.

This session goes a long way toward educating these kids about how nature works and how to better steward their park and other wild areas of Colorado. Their minds are opened up to new possibilities such as the idea that wildland fires are not good or bad, but just a natural and necessary part of the health of the ecosystems they have been studying.

Society Is The Soil From Which Our Children Grow

~by Ranger David "Pine" Martin

“A child said What is the grass?
fetching it to me with full hands,
How could I answer the child?”
~Walt Whitman.

I was reminded of these lines from Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass yesterday when a student asked me a question during our Earth Studies session.

We were sitting in a circle amongst the Ponerosa Pines examining the soil created by that ecosystem; discussing the minerals, water, air and organic matter to be found in the samples each child had taken. We discussed the ways in which the forest of the past contributed a great deal to the rich, nutritive biotic content of the soil from which the forest of the present receives it's nutrients and water from.

A child held up something he had found in his small sample of soil. “What is this?” he asked. It was one of the small, orange, male pine cones.

I explained what it was, but this answer only served to generate more questions. One was, why are the female cones so much bigger than the male cones?” I explained that the female cone is an ovulate cone and has a big job; it must build a home for, create the seeds which carry all the genetic coding for the Pine tree to reproduce, and must house those seeds until they are dispersed which may take several years.

Often I am asked questions by students during Earth Studies programs to which I would love to answer in great depth and illuminate them at length to the amazing and elegant complexity of the living systems of the world around them. I would have loved to go into how wind tunnel analyses of the female cones have shown that the geometry of the cone’s structure itself aerodynamically enhances the probability of pollen entrapment.

A part of me, akin to Whitman, would love to ruminate on each question, take them deep, ponder and mull over the nuances and connections and through this generate a greater sense of meaning within myself and these children, imbue their worldview with a deep beauty. With the day’s time constraints and the short attention span of the Fifth Graders however, it is best to keep the answers brief and as “on-topic” or applicable to the session’s lesson as possible. Bring it back around. Show interconnectedness.

I woke up this morning with some deeper thoughts on this subject. What we do as Environmental Educators is a lot of seed planting; we know that not all seeds will take root, so we plant a lot. It occurred to me however, that not only are we planting seeds, but we are enriching the soil those seeds are planted in and that this, like the relationship between the soil and the trees in this ecosystem, will perpetuate itself. Environmental Educators not only teach the elements of the session at hand, but as adult members of their community and education system, we teach many other things by example. We show them our love of Nature and how to responsibly interact with our environment and each other. Earth Studies Co-Program Director John Duston once told me "We teach values." and I would have to agree with him wholeheartedly. Much of what we teach is through exhibiting our values by our behavior. We teach them that we value nature and value learning by fostering an outdoor classroom culture of cooperation, mutual respect, patience and enthusiasm. As we educate these young people our hopes are that it elevates the level of education, the sense of place and the values of our community and society at large as it grows and matures. Our intention is that each of these kids grows up strong, healthy, intelligent and happy.

Society is the soil from which our children grow; our children will become the society of the future and they will in turn become the soil from which their children grow.

June Wonders of Nature Camp

Wonders of Nature Camp got off to a great start this year as we clearly defined the group goals and group ethics and expectations we would be looking to fulfill and create together. Many of the children had great input about their expectations of the fun and discovery they wanted to experience. Some wanted to make new friends, some were all about the games and others were very interested in exploring the natural world of the Pueblo Mountain Park. Although the week went fast, we ended up doing all these things!

Monday began with a hike up to Lookout Point to see the view of the foothills to the South West as well as to experience the depths of Devils Canyon from above. This was a pretty challenging first hike for some of the little campers, but they did well. This hike up Mace Trail passes through some pretty hot and dry Mountain Shrub Land Ecosystems and so hydration was important and we all encouraged one another to drink plenty of good, clean water. We also kept an eye on each other for signs of heat exhaustion as well as reminding the group to reapply sunscreen. We saw some Claret Cup cactus blooming as well as many other wildflowers along the way, and as usual the bugs and butterflies and hummingbirds were very busy.

Wednesday we focused on the Devils Canyon trail making our way through the shady Douglas Fir Ecosystems. We contrasted this ecosystem with the one we experienced the day before and discussed the differences in the flora and fauna of each.

We took our time to take in the details and this led to many interesting discoveries. Right off the bat we began to notice different vegetation and spotted some large fungi growing on old dead logs. The treasure here was the friendly blue and purple (with black-polka-dots!) Pleasing Fungus Beetles.

These beetles can often be found on the large fungus, slowly burrowing into them as they slowly devour these tough mushrooms over several years.

They also fly around a lot and have a proclivity for landing on our shirts and hats and crawling around peacefully. Some of the kids did not relish this experience, while others fell in love with these amiable beetles immediately. These beetles were an introduction to the insect world of the Mountain Park and several of the boys took to searching out different kinds of insects with gusto for the rest of the week.

There are so many different kinds of insects in various stages of development at this time of year that there was no end to the entomological discoveries.

It was a delight to see the kids take an interest in the tiny folk of the forest for in my opinion they are often overlooked and underrated, not only in their amazing diversity or elegant beauty, but in the work they do in the natural community.

One boy in particular seemed as though he had found his purpose in life by discovering the amazing diversity of insects this Summer and it wouldn’t surprise me to see this young man grow up to be an amazing naturalist and entomologist with a great knowledge of local insects. I encouraged them during our journaling time to write or make illustrations about these discoveries. There was a lot of interesting science to talk about such as the insects’ different adaptations, metamorphosis and the unique ways some of them camouflage themselves to blend in with their habitat.

Spring Break Camp

Spring Break Camp was a wonderful experience this year with mostly sunny and warm weather blessing the Mountain Park and making for an excellent environment for hiking and games.

Campers were introduced to several new games, some of them seasonal in nature to welcome Spring and the birds returning from their Winter migration.

We built large pine-needle nests, played many games and variations of Hide-and-Seek, saw Flickers and Woodpeckers and Nuthatches and even a Coopers Hawk!

The creek was calling and several of the campers decided to don rubber boots or change into flip-flops and actually got their feet wet.

The forest echoed with laughter and howls of delight at the icy water.

A hike up to the Fire Tower was a high point providing the campers with the opportunity to climb up into the sturdy historic Fire Tower.

This tower was once used to keep an eye on the surrounding forests during fire season.

Climbing up the tower gives one a view of the entire Beulah Valley . . . and beyond!

A longer hike on Thursday up to Lookout Point and North Ridge Trail was a good challenge.

Campers expressed feelings of accomplishment at the trek they had completed through some of the Mountain Parks most beautiful and wild areas.

If this is any indication of the fun and adventure in store for camps this year then I am REALLY looking forward to the Summer Camps!

Ranger Dave hikes the CO Trail for Nature Education!

Ranger Dave has hiked 117 miles for Nature Education so far (here's one of the many great mountain scenes from along the trail). Check out Ranger Dave's CO Trail Hike blog at http://www.rangerdavehikes.blogspot.com/ and read all about about Dave's fund-raising effort for Nature Education!!!

Busy day at MPEC!

Pictured here is Maya Avina taking advantage of the warmer days to set the beautiful tiles on the new benches around the lodge's fire circle. Maya and several local artists created lovely Nature-themed tiles to decorate the stone pillars...come up and see for yourself just how beautiful these are. And here are a few of the 70 or so Earth Studies students (from Corwin and South Park Schools in Pueblo) finishing up a day of basic ornithology lessons (birding) with the necessary assessments that we do to quantify the impact of our programs on academics. We are pleased that this school year, students are performing an average of 48 percentage points higher on post-tests than they did on the pre-tests they took a few weeks earlier. And, I am also pleased to say that it sure feels and looks much more like spring in the park today - that is, spring minus the wind. We have a wildflower hike scheduled for Sunday the 18th at 10am, and a Lodge Open House set for Sunday between 2 and 4pm. Please join us for one or both of these. Happy trails, Dave

MPEC's Summer Busier Than Ever!

So much is happening at MPEC these days (except lots of blogging, apparently). A sampling: we are facilitating our final 2 camps this week; the overnight rooms in the west wing are nearly ready to paint; July's rain continues a nice wet summer; and our Yoga in Nature Hike went very well this past Saturday. And so many other programs have taken place, including Nature Toddlers, Sketching in Nature Workshop, and Family Nature Gathering. MPEC continues to be busy busy busy providing opportunities for people to learn about and connect with Nature.

MPEC Drums in the Summer!

A cool wet day turned into a gorgeous solstice evening at Pueblo Mountain Park. The fair skies brought many folks, youngsters through not-so-youngsters to our summer solstice drum circle. Rhythms, dancing, singing, and hoola-hooping were some of the ways 50 or so folks welcomed summer.

Volunteers Transform Devil's Canyon Trail!!!

On May 30 and 31, over 100 volunteers came to Pueblo Mountain Park to work...and work they did. Guided by the terrific Denver-based group, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC), these volunteers transformed the tired and badly-eroded first few hundred yards of the Devil's Canyon Trail into a beautiful, welcoming trail. After improving the muddy first couple of hundred feet, crews closed off the old trail and constructed a few hundred yards of brand new trail, built right into the steep slope of Douglas and white fir. The result is a trail we all are very proud of. Pictured here are crews getting ready on Saturday morning in front of the Lodge; getting down and dirty on the trail; MPEC's Ranger John Oates teaching a game to the project's Young Stewards (lots of families came out for the weekend - parents worked on the trails while the youngsters learned about Nature and did their own service project in the park); and the finished trail! Please come up and hike the new trail for yourself!!!

Winter at MPEC!

MPEC held its first Winter Festivity Day on Saturday, Dec 21, a very cold Winter Solstice Day. Santa, some fun games, and s'mores around the fire were a part of this next to last MPEC program of 2008 (we had a Solstice Drum Circle later that same afternoon). What a year it has been for MPEC - we started and completed Phase 1 of the Horseshoe Lodge Project while facilitating a record 322 program sessions for 7971 participants. Happy Holidays from all of us at MPEC!

Out in the Snow!!!

With the recent snows, MPEC's Earth Studies students have been experiencing our outdoor classroom decorated in its winter garb. This month we've been working on using a compass, so students got to find their way around with snowshoes strapped to their feet (a first for essentially every one of them). Winter has finally arrived, and one thing MPEC does with it is teach that it is perfectly OK to be outside when it is cold or snowy (a real eye-opener for many more of our students than you'd think). We teach them that as long as they are properly prepared with the right gear (we're using lots of our donated hats and gloves lately), being outside in winter can be wonderful! Here are a few photos tken over the past few days here at MPEC!

Horseshoe Lodge opens in a grand fashion!

A gentle warm mid-autumn day was the backdrop for MPEC's celebration of completion of the first phase of the Horseshoe Lodge Project. An estimated 300 people showed up to celebrate, enjoy some delicious goodies, tour the Lodge, and learn a bit about what comes next for MPEC at Horseshoe Lodge. Words of wisdom, story and insight were shared by Pueblo City Councilman Randy Thurston, MPEC Board Member Anne Warren and her son, MPEC camper Zach Warren, camper Jackson Reed, founding MPEC Board Member Tim Sandsmark (now Director of Lookout Mountain Nature Center in Jefferson County), Pueblo County Commissioner Jeff Chostner, and MPEC Founder and Director Dave Van Manen. A surprise visit by Dudley McFarland, a CCC worker who worked in Pueblo Mountain Park in 1935 (he's now 95) and a donation by the National Automobile Sales Association presented by Barbara and Bill Vidmar added to the day's delight. A few youngsters from our Nature Toddlers group cut the ribbon that officially opened the Horseshoe Lodge as MPEC's new home. The day was both a celebration of the completion of Phase 1 and a kick-off of fund-raising for the remaining phases of the exciting Horseshoe Lodge Project - which we already have quite a bit of the necessary funds to get Phase 2 - the overnight rooms in the west wing - started and completed! Click the ribbon-cutting photo on the right to see lots of Grand Opening photos.

Backpacking, hiking, and Horseshoe Lodge!

June has been a busy month at MPEC! Here are some photos showing a bit of what's been happening: backpack camp in the Greenhorn Wilderness for middle school age kids (after a dayhike to the peak, they were treated to a lovely sunset over the Sangre de Cristos back at camp) and a guided hike from Hwy 165 back into Pueblo Mountain Park along the South Creek Trail (in collaboration with Wild Connections and the local Sierra Club chapter). The wildflowers were terrific, including several columbines. The Lodge photo shows that the insulation is in, hanging drywall is about complete for the upstairs (taping begins this week, as does downstairs drywall hanging), and the project is in full swing. We are looking for volunteers who would like to help out with painting, which we will be getting to in the next couple of weeks. If you're interested, please call me at 485-4444. Thanks, Ranger Dave