All school forests are required to convene a committee who meets at least twice a year.
The purpose of your committee is to ensure that your site is being used for education and stays safe, accessible, and healthy.
Who should be on our committee?
The school forest site coordinator makes sure the committee meets.
Every committee is different. Additional committee members might include:
One or two teachers from each school using the school forest.
An administrative representative (principal, superintendent, director, etc.).
A PTO or PTA representative.
A representative from the school board.
Your science curriculum specialist.
As needed, partners to help with specific projects, such as your DNR forester, local organizations, volunteer groups, etc.
Committee structure
Decide if the committee should use an informal or formal structure (having a president, VP, treasurer, or secretary).
Decide how often, when, and where the committee should meet. Committees should meet at least once a year.
Set ground rules that will:
Honor meeting dates, start times, end times, decisions, priorities, and assignments.
Prompt thoughtful responses and make sure all voices are heard fairly.
Make sure everyone’s voice is heard fairly.
Double-check for agreement on important issues.
Seek opposing points of view.
Steer away from discussing or rehashing previous decisions or negative topics.
Give credit where it is due for accomplishments.
Committee tasks
The purpose of your committee is to ensure that your site is being used for education and stays safe, accessible, and healthy.
Common tasks include:
Watch School Forests 101 (It’s a good idea to ask all potential committee members to watch this 15-minute before the first meeting.)
Complete the school forest needs assessment. You can revisit it once a year.
Ensure the site is used for education:
Help teachers use the school forest, such as hosting after-school walk-and-talks along a trail, providing trail maps, requesting teacher professional development, organizing grab-and-go activity kits, or setting up bus schedules.
Invite administrators to observe a class learning in your school forest.
Plan events, such as:
Earth Day cleanups
School events (cookouts, community hikes, Halloween walks, etc.)
Address safety and legal concerns. Committees should decide how community members can use the forest, such as hunting, dog-walking, off-highway vehicle riding, foraging, cross-country skiing, frisbee golf, etc.
Plan site maintenance tasks.
Trails. Who will maintain them?
Site enhancements (signs, bathrooms, benches, buildings, etc.).
Create a trail map. Post it online for teachers to use.
Decide how the community may use your site, including access and security.
Work with a DNR forester to get a woodland stewardship plan for your site.
Apply for grants or secure funding for supplies (snowshoes, lumber for the shop class to make benches, renting a port-a-potty, etc.). Some school forests generate money through timber harvest, event fees, or selling crafts made from forest items. This money should always be reinvested back into the site.
Keep school forest history (historical use of the site) and records such as inventorying plants and animals.
Communicate with the public about the forest through writing articles, posting photos, posting signs or maps on-site, managing a Facebook group, etc.
Recruit other potential committee members to prevent burn-out and maintain long-term continuity when members move on.