This talk relates very well to SnowSchool and our efforts to connect youth of the Treasure Valley to nature through snowshoeing and educational activities. It is sponsored by the Idaho Earth Institute and here is their announcement:

Join the Idaho Earth Institute for a Turtle Talk presentation on Friday, April 18^th, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM in Room 215 of Timberline High School, 701 E. Boise Avenue. There you will learn more about the issue of nature deficit disorder, and you’ll gain an optimist’s perspective on positive ways to combat the widening disconnect between young people and the natural world.

With their fingers on the buttons of their video games, iPods and cell phones, many young people today are more connected and involved with electronic devices than they are with the non-electronic, natural world outside their back doors. Although they are at risk from nature deficit disorder, they live in a society that is also largely separated from nature, so the risks are seldom recognized. How can we reconnect young people with the natural world to promote a sustainable future?

Our speaker, Dick Jordan, has been involved with bridging the gap between people and the natural world for more than thirty years. He’s the president and founder of TREE (Teens Restoring Earth’s Environment), and has taken 15 TREE groups to Belize and Ecuador to study their unique cultural and biological diversities. Dick has taught biology and environmental science and chaired the science department at Timberline High School since it opened in 1998. His outdoor interests include white water rafting, scuba diving, and raptor rehabilitation. He is also the Northwest U.S. Regional Outreach representative of Jatun Sacha (Ecuador’s premier environmental NGO), and vice president of Wilderness Science Explorers. Dick has supported IEI’s mission by coordinating IEI discussion courses with Veronica Daley Zaleha for students at staff at Timberline High School. Also, Dick Roy, the founder of the NWEI, was a guest speaker in his classroom.

This month's topic relates most closely to the Healthy Children - Healthy Planet topic in the NWEI offerings. For more about this particular book, go to http://www.nwei.org/discussion_courses/course-offerings/heathty-children-healthy-planet and http://www.nwei.org/files/2-sided%20HCHP%20description-reading.pdf

*JOIN US FOR A SNOWSCHOOL YEAR-END PARTY this Thursday!*

Who: SnowSchool Volunteers AND THEIR FRIENDS!
What: SnowSchool Year-End Party downtown style
When: This Thursday at 6:30 pm
Where: Alia's Coffeehouse (908 W. Main)
Why: To celebrate a successful season together (or tell field trip horror stories)
Extra: Appearance by SPECIAL MUSICAL GUESTS!

There will be a pot of soup, some quiche and snacks, live musical entertainment and of course Kerry's fabulous slideshow extravaganza!

SnowSchool is a winter-ecology snowshoe field trip program for the youth of the Treasure Valley. Bundled up and fitted with snowshoes, kids venture out into the winter wildlands to discover the wonders of the winter environment. Please visit http://snowschool.squarespace.com/ for more information.

Well there's a lot to report from this first part of January at Bogus Basin that might not have reached the printing presses in the Treasure Valley.  Hundreds of kids have already attended SnowSchool and through the passionate work of our volunteers have been rendered "snow-struck".  In some groups up to 95% of the students had not been to Bogus Basin previously or gone snowshoeing before.  As billions of tiny snow crystals have freshly re-blanketed the mountain nearly every week, these SnowSchool students were on the scene to witness this incredible phenomenon.  Studying, sliding, rolling, romping, measuring, digging and occasionally ingesting the snow, the future inheritors of our planet have both enjoyed the natural winter environment and learned a great deal.    

Here's some snipets of what a few of our volunteer leaders have been up to so far: Cass was an avid proponent of hands on education and had the season's first successful birding moment with some kids from Whitney Elementary.  Jake led successful snow-cave and shelter building with the Lowell GATE students. Sue snagged the season's first successful trek to the stadium and back.  Dan and Brent were broad sided with a group of kids that measured off the scale on the Wild Child Meter. To their great personal credit they managed to teach, hike the kids into the ground, keep them from chopping down any trees and serve as exemplary role models.  Richard was able to convince his students that they were "actual water molecules" and took them from the mountain snow pack all the way to the ocean and back again.  Pam broke into new SnowSchool territory with her innovative "SnowArt" activity.  Tom S. introduced the Roosevelt kids to shovel sledding.  Teen sensation and Timberline TREE Club representative Tom G. wowed the Anser students and parents with his snow slab/avalanche demonstration.  (If I missed anybody I'll be sure to get you on Nature News Volume 2.)

My groups have been tracking everything from SnowShoe Hare to the elusive one-footed snow gremlin (AKA snowballs that roll down the open slopes).  We've found Stellar Dendrites, Needles, good spots for hiding in the mountain habitat and we even discovered "history" in a snowpit.  One student passionately claimed he could "taste the history" in the snow!  

I've been up there each day to see all of this in action and I think it is an incredible happening.  Thanks to everybody who has put so much hard work into SnowSchool so far.  - Kerry 

Well with our final SnowSchool training session under our belts and the first day of SnowSchool behind us I think it is safe to say that the season has officially started.  This not to say, however, that the year won't be without significant and unforeseen challenges.  Even on the very first day it seems Mother Nature and Father Winter conspired to give SnowSchool a little more than we had bargained for.  When Edna, Mark, Mary-Lou, Brooke, Pam and myself arrived on the mountain Friday, we were greeted by winds of almost unfathomable ferocity.  Outside the lodge our ears whistled and voices were hopelessly whisked away as soon as we opened our mouths.  This meant that any plan that any one of us had carefully pieced together the night before was immediately scrapped and tossed out the window.  It's moments like these that require nothing more than a positive attitude and an open mind.  This is sometimes referred to as the subtle art of "winging it" and is something that cannot be ignored in any type of outdoor education.  Success on a "wing it" day is found in simply accepting circumstances as they are.  Thanks to our wonderful volunteers this was not a problem and the day was filled with creativity, lots of huddling behind rocks, flopping about in the snow, mimed directions, hole digging and remarkable memories for the students. 

I wanted to tell this story to remind myself about the essential requirements of outdoor learning.  I'd received some feedback on the "Volunteer Packet" suggesting that it was quite detailed and a little intimidating.  I want everyone to know that while the material and structure in the packet is valuable, it is the attitudes and willingness of each volunteer to adapt to circumstance that makes for a great day outside.  So if you're sweating all of this... don't, and remember just wing it! 

- Kerry