CLEARING Compendium 2009

Place-based Learning
has suffered all the ravages an urban forest in the Northwest
can suffer: all its conifers logged, garbage dumped in its nooks
and crannies, and worst of all, invasive species, especially
English ivy and Himalayan blackberry, pushing native plants
and animals out of their homes. It takes the concentrated effort
of multi-year forest restoration projects to improve the health of
such a forest.
Luckily, this particular piece of Seattle forest has just what it
needs right next door: an elementary school ﬁlled with students
who are eager, if not downright desperate, for time in an out-
door classroom and for a place they can call their own. These are
urban kids, many of whom are immigrants or the ﬁrst in their
family to be born in the United States. Seventy-ﬁve percent of
the students at Dearborn are eligible for free or reduced lunch,
and ninety-ﬁve percent have an ethnicity other than Caucasian.
Some of these kids have stories of violence and poverty to break
your heart. But regardless of their demographic characteristics,
they are children — ready to play, explore, be challenged and
test the limits of their knowledge and abilities. Restoring the
Children’s Forest provides an opportunity to do all these things,
A Forest by the Children,
and for many it provides an environment where they can excel
in a way they have a hard time doing in the classroom.
for the Children
At EarthCorps, we practice what’s called “restoration-based
environmental education.” I’ve been at this EE thing for ﬁfteen
years, and I’ve discovered that I’m not happy simply taking
By Kristen Cook
groups on a tour, stopping and interpreting (no matter how
many games and hands-on activities are woven into a program).
This year I learned that EarthCorps
No, what I want for the students is a much more intimate experi-
don’t only make the forest a better
ence with nature, the very speciﬁc “Puget Sound Lowland For-
place, they teach other people how
est” nature that is all around them, even here in the city. By my
to take care of the forest and some
standards, a forest restoration project is the perfect vehicle. To do
of those people are us.
habitat restoration well, students will have to know which plants
— Joseph, 5
th
grader
are native to this area, which animals rely on the forest and for
what, and all the other myriad things that make up a Northwest
forest. Since the three acres of the Children’s Forest need some
A
s the youth outreach coordinator for Earth Corps, a
serious assistance, the students I work with can’t help but get
Seattle-based conservation corps, I provide in-depth
intimate with this forest. If they are going to restore it, they are
service learning projects for youth using habitat restora-
going to have to get dirty.
tion as the context. For the past six years, I have been working
At ﬁrst, getting dirty can be a huge challenge. These stu-
with teachers and students from Dearborn Park elementary
dents have been told since they were little NOT to get dirty, and
in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. This area of southeast
since most of their time is spent indoors, they often don’t realize
Seattle is away from the wealthier waterfront neighborhoods
just how dirty you can get from pulling ivy and planting trees.
and properties which look out over the city skyline and Puget
This is where we thank Mother Nature for worms. Pretty quickly
Sound. This is an area of the city whose parks and small bits of
in the act of pulling invasive plants we’re turning over soil, and
forest have historically been overlooked, not unlike its residents,
when we start to ﬁnd worms, boom!... the kids aren’t quite as
many of whom are, to use the current terminology, “under-
worried about the dirt — they’re looking really closely to see if
served.” Within this urban ecosystem, you’ll ﬁnd ethnicities
they can ﬁnd a bigger worm or a creepier beetle, or the every-
and languages spanning the globe, and if you drive down from
elusive millipede that smells like almonds. If the beneﬁts of the
Beacon Hill, or up from Rainier Valley, you’ll come across a tiny
program ended there, with kids being fascinated and comfort-
gem of a forest, not quite three acres in all. This is the Dearborn
able with the soil and the creatures living in it, I’d be happy. But
Park Children’s Forest.
there’s much more to it than this.
The Children’s Forest is not some pristine place left mi-
Picture a class of twenty-eight students, working in four
raculously untouched by a century and a half of development
small groups scattered throughout the forest. Each group
all around it. And in a way, this is a good thing, for otherwise
surveys the forest in September, looking for areas where the in-
what would there be for us to do to make it whole again? Where
vasive plants are taking over. Using the data they collect on the
would all our lessons about the history of this place come from?
survey, each group picks out a forest plot — their own special
How could we learn the stories of pioneer loggers if there wasn’t
area that they are in charge of for the whole school year. I and
a cedar stump with notches for the springboards? And what
my staff of outreach interns will meet with the class every other
would we do other than look and only gently touch, for fear of
week for an hour, and take them through the entire process of
trampling some rare thing? Alas, the forest at Dearborn Park
restoration from removing the invasive plants, to picking out
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