Cda Students Managing Forest Company Lets High Schoolers Decide How To Log 640 Acres Of Timberland

Teacher Lori Frank knew the managers at Idaho Forest Industries well, but she still had to summon up her courage to ask them a big favor.

She wanted to teach a hands-on forest management course at Coeur d’Alene High School. Would the company let the students decide which trees to cut on, say, 10 acres of its land?

“We said, ‘No, we can’t do that. … But would 600 acres do it for you?”’ recalled Mike Welling, head of forestry for IFI. “She just about fell out of her chair.”

The result of that conversation is a high school course unique in the country. It also is an example of the growing interaction between business and public education.

Frank had taught high school science for 14 years and also had worked for the U.S. Forest Service when she applied for a chamber of commerce internship to work at IFI in 1993. She wanted to balance her knowledge of public forests with information about the management of private timberland.

She became friends with the IFI staff. She told them she wanted to teach a senior-level forestry field course.

Keenly aware that logging and environmental protection are controversial topics, she made it clear that her students would hear many different perspectives.

“They have never sat me down and asked my agenda,” she said. “I think they trust my integrity as a teacher.”

Among guest lecturers this semester are a forester who works for Idaho Fish and Game, a hydrologist from the Forest Service and a wildlife expert from the Audubon Society. Students learn about logging regulations, habitat, forest diseases and stream protection as well as the importance of the timber industry.

Frank believes that the growing human population will ruin the earth without wise land management.

“I’m a conservationist.”

But when the students write their plan for managing the IFI land, she said, “I try so hard not to steer them. I want them to consider values and make up their own minds.”

Her greatest fear is that someone will object to students being exposed to environmental or industry viewpoints that they find objectionable.

“If it becomes political, that would kill it,” she said.

The comments of two students suggest the course is making them more moderate.

“Before this class, I always thought of clearcutting as a bad word,” said Katie Fitzpatrick. “It has so many more benefits than you might think … and thinning can really help a forest.”

Brian See came into the class thinking that environmentalists are irrationally opposed to logging.

“Now, I find out there are reasons they don’t want trees cut down,” he said. “I’ve learned about the ecosystem.”

Seventy-five students applied for the 24 openings in the fall semester course, which is in its second year.

Students are chosen for the elective course partly on the basis of recommendations from their previous science teachers. They must be self-motivated, Frank said.

The students work hard, earning two semesters of credits in a few short months. The only way to earn an A is by reporting on outside events, such as a hearing on hunting regulations or a forum on waterways protection.

Two afternoons a week, students are bused to the woods. The IFI acreage has been logged in the past and is, company mangers believe, ready for more logging.

The company has set aside 640 acres for the class project, half of it north of Coeur d’Alene off Bunco Road. That’s where the students are working on 20 acres, near the 20 acres cut according to the students’ plan last year.

IFI improved the road so a school bus could get in, and keeps it plowed. Its foresters teach the students how to calculate the timber volume, how to mark the trees for harvest.

Student Kathleen Krapfl likes getting away from school and working outdoors.

“You don’t realize how much you’ve learned, until the speakers start asking you questions,” she said.

Last week, it was the students who were asking sophisticated questions of environmental activist Barry Rosenberg, of the Inland Empire Public Lands Council. He went with the class to the IFI land.

With a yellow litter of cottonwood leaves under his feet, surrounded by students in yellow rain gear, Rosenberg talked about the importance of leaving large trees on the forest floor. That builds up the soil for future generations of trees, he said.

“What do you think is the threshold? How many big logs do you need per acre?” asked student Rachel Stormogipson.

Others asked about the width of buffer zones around streams, the value of horse logging to prevent soil compaction, the differences between past and present logging practices.

IFI forester Reid Ahlf sat on a stump, listening to Rosenberg’s responses. Asked later if he felt tempted to disagree, Ahlf said, “Here and there.”

Walking back past last year’s logging site, Ahlf said the students came up with a harvest plan similar to what he would have written.

The classmates are given only two guidelines. Their logging plan can’t cost IFI more to execute than the timber was worth, and it has to improve the site. Frank leaves the definition of “improved” up to the students.

They reach their conclusions working in six teams of four people. Each team writes a management plan. Then they agree as a class how to log their 20 acres. That involves some “arm-wrestling,” their teacher said.

Last year, they decided to clearcut five of the acres and selectively harvest the rest.

Welling was invited to critique the final plan. Only he had to pretend he was an environmentalist, looking for flaws. Brad Gilbert, a Forest Service district ranger, played the part of an industry forester who also challenged the students’ decisions.

“It was fun to see how much ownership the kids had in that plan,” said Frank. “They were going to fight for it, tooth and nail.”

When the trees were cut, IFI donated 25 percent of the proceeds to Frank. She spends it on field equipment.

She launched the course with a $6,000 Toyota Tapestry Grant, given for experimental science programs. Another grant from the Pinchot Institute for Conservation sent seven of last years’ students to the World Forestry Congress in Washington, D.C.

At that gathering, Welling said, he and Frank were inundated with questions from people who wanted to start similar courses.

IFI officials are pleased to be getting people into the woods for a first-hand look at what it takes to manage land. As a means of getting the industry message across, Welling said, it beats sending out brochures.

“If you get forestry propaganda, you say, ‘Oh, yeah, right.’ But, by God, when they’re able to go out there and see it for themselves, it’s different.”

It has renewed his faith in young people to watch the students work, Welling said.

Rosenberg, a self-described “old tree hugger,” was equally excited about the teenagers after going into the forest with them.

“I love this,” he said as the bus headed back to Coeur d’Alene High. “This is the future.”

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