Students met on the riverbank where the Clearwater enters the Blackfoot River, a site described in Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It." Jessica Eller, a graduate student that works with author Chris Dombrowski at the University of Montana helped students captured their own ideas and feelings in words and rhythms enhanced by real current rushing by.
Students learned from Nancy Seiler about nature journaling. Seiler is an illustrator, painter, graphic designer and a Golden Artist Educator for Golden Artist Colors. Seiler gave tips on how to draw landscapes, leaves, record at least five observations about the object and other notable things in the surroundings, and use negative space to help space the object. Students had more than an hour to make their color swatches with their watercolor pencils to help match the colors they see with the pencil colors, draw a plant or part of a plant and a landscape. "Other sessions were more expected, the students picked what they wanted and they liked learning about it. The journaling one they didn't know what to expect from it. I just kept telling them they would love it and they did," said Organizer Lori Messenger.
Blackfoot River Keeper Jerry O'Connell helps Emily Banks learn the art of casting a fly rod. This session focused on the connections of the Blackfoot River and healthy fish populations, gave an introduction to fly fishing and explored Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) with AIS expert Heidi Sedivy.
Students joined Adam Lieberg and Sara Halm from Swan Valley Connections where they put their tracking skills to the test along the river corridor. They visited a series of points and were asked to identify what animal left the sign and why the sign was left, either eating, reproducing or communicating. Then on the return trip, they were given the answers to questions so they could compare. At this point, a bear used its canine teeth to scrape the power pole. Halm said it is a communication tool. "Communication is one thing we don't know a lot about," said Halm. "Once we identify what it was, then we can speculate what they are communicating. It's cool to know what to look for and then to be able to find all this stuff in the woods."
Olivia Reinitz brings another role of barbed wire to add to the pile. On the 8,000 acres Potter Land Trust, Potter Trust Grounds Land Manager Scott Gordon estimates there are 40 miles of fencing. "We are trying to make the fences wildlife friendly," said Betty Potter, owner of the Potter Land Trust lands. She said they are replacing the barbed wire with either electric fences or smooth wire, starting with the cross fences. This allows for connectivity on the landscape and helps keep the wildlife and livestock from getting tangled in the fences. Gordon said using electric fences allow him more flexibility when grazing his horses because it allows him to manage the land more efficiently. "It makes for a little more management moving the horses every two or three days, but for the ground itself there is more benefit. You aren't grazing it down too hard but you are getting everything on that small piece grazed," said Gordon. In their evaluations, students said they enjoyed being productive and helping out.
Frank Finley, an instructor from Salish Kootenai College, taught students how to make traditional twine and saw edge nets using traditional tools. Finley said the Salish Kootenai learned to make the nets as children and the first project they completed was given away as a gift. Pictured: Finley looks at the net made by Chloe Robbins.
GREENOUGH – The confluence of the Blackfoot and the Clearwater Rivers off Sunset Hill Road was the classroom for nearly 100 Seeley-Swan High School students May 10 as a part of their annual Discovery Day. Discovery Day was funded through grants from the Seeley Lake Community Foundation and the Montana Environmental Education Association. This year the focus was rivers.
"The reason for focusing it on rivers was to prepare some kids to be able to present things at the Norman Maclean Festival in the fall [Sept. 8-10]. We needed to do something this spring that links to that because we would really love some of our high school students to be a part of that and present what they are learning," said organizer Lori Messenger.
Organizers Messenger and Tonya Smith based this year's sessions on student evaluations from previous years. Various local professionals offered eight sessions ranging from wildlife, geology, recreation and service learning to creative writing and nature journaling.
The day-long event ties in well with Missoula County Public Schools 21st Century Learning Initiative and Indian Ed For All.
"We are trying to fit it into the bigger circular initiatives that are supposed to be more multi-disciplinary and to tie it to course work for at least several of their classes. We have done well with the arts, English, science and social studies. Math has been harder to figure out how to pull in productively for high school," said Messenger.
This year's sessions were two and a half hours long allowing the students and presenters to go more in depth in topics the students were interested in. Students ranked the sessions by their interest level. Messenger said, "Because they really wanted quite different things, mostly they got their top two choices.
Messenger said from the evaluations she read, the students appreciated the longer sessions. Messenger said they had a larger percentage with a positive response.
"The students were pretty happy and excited about it," said Messenger.
Messenger was thankful to all the private landowners and the Potter Land Trust for "opening their arms and allowing the students to learn on their land about their landscape."
"I think the more the younger generation can be out the better. We need more people that really care for the land," said Betty Potter who was excited to see so many young students out enjoying the land. Potter said her late husband Bill was instrumental in getting the Block Management program started. "We wanted to work with the public as much as possible," added Potter who still opens their land up for hunting with the program.
"For as small as our community is, it seems like we don't have as much connection as I would like to see between what goes on at the high school and what goes on in the broader community and environment. It was really neat bringing those elements together and getting to watch people interact with each other successfully," said Messenger.
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