School Forest
Highlights About Our School Forests
The School Forest program welcomes Lester Park School Forest! This spring, Lester Park Elementary in Duluth designated a ½–acre wooded ravine across the street as their School Forest. The "58th Street Creek" runs through the forest and students will work with the city of Duluth to rename to creek to reflect natural features around it. Dramatic exposures of bedrock, boulders, and deciduous trees line the steep creek sides. The school building, which opened in 2011, combines K-1 students from Rockridge Elementary and grade 3-5 students from Lester Park. Teachers recognize that activities need to be built into curriculum in order to best use their new outdoor classroom. This site will allow more frequent trips to the outdoors, in addition to the annual field trip to Wolf Ridge.
Duluth East High School Forest
Duluth East High School Forest is beautiful 8-acre parcel nestled on the east side of Duluth, adjacent to the school building. The forest contains variety of woodland plant and tree species, a small stream, and nesting pair of bald eagles. The parcel's eastern border is the Duluth Lake Walk, which enjoys daily traffic by hundreds of cyclists, runners, and walkers. Duluth Public Schools recently completed construction of the new Duluth East High School building and intentionally set aside this parcel for outdoor learning. It is used weekly by the FFA students and biology classes. In addition, it is used by after-school clubs, and the high school activities director. Jennifer Madole, site coordinator, has pulled together a terrific team of local natural resource professionals, educators and students to guide site use and development. This spring an eagle scout will build a bridge over the recently expanded stream banks to provide an accessible entrance to the site. Finally, a DNR stewardship plan will soon be underway to guide trail development, thinning, and planting.
Becker Big Woods School Forest
Becker Big Woods School Forest is located in St. Michael across the street from St. Michael-Albertville Middle School East. Purchased in 2006 by the City of St. Michael with help from a DNR grant, the School Forest consists of 38.5 acres of old growth maple-basswood forest. The Becker Big Woods is special because it represents what St. Michael looked like before its conversion to agriculture. Many teachers use the forest throughout the school year. Activities include geocaching, movie-making, plant and animal identification, animal tracking, drawing, tapping maple trees, and tree measurement. More and more teachers use the woods each year. Staff and natural resource professionals from the St. Michael area have helped teachers deliver a community-based, interdisciplinary approach to learning about St. Michael's history.
Oneka-Hugo School Forest
The 25-acre Oneka-Hugo School Forest is located next to Oneka Elementary. Containing wetlands, old fields, and a few trees, this area was recently converted from agriculture. Thousands of homes and townhomes built in the last two decades surround the school, and many students traverse the School Forest via paved bike trail and boardwalk to attend class. With help from the DNR's Taking Action Opportunities (TAO) program, 5th grade teacher and site coordinator Abbi Case was able to install two trail cameras. Today, students are learning about the animals that tend to avoid noisy classes of students: the shy fox, elusive opossums, and sneaky raccoons. Abbi uses the TAO curriculum, developed by DNR and the U of MN's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve staff, to help guide students' learning about what they find. Part of their learning includes creating recommendations to improve habitat for even more wildlife sightings. One student said: "I can't believe how many animals live in our schoolyard that we never see!"