Scott Swanson
After the same two-year hiatus that has affected nearly every other institution in the state, Sweet Home’s Outdoor School was back in business last week at Camp Tadmor, north of town.
“It was so wonderful to have the students outside and back at camp,” said Shannon Richardson, executive director of the South Santiam Watershed Council, which put on the event for some 180 sixth-graders from all of Sweet Home School District’s elementary schools.
“We were so glad we were able to pull this thing off,” sadi Mike Vernon, who heads the watershed council’s education outreach.
The event included up-close-and-personal experiences for students at stations focusing on fish dissection, wildlife biology, forest management, outdoor survival, archery, forest ecology, nature art/archeology, aquatic organisms and fishing.
Contributors and staff included U.S. Forest Service personnel from the Sweet Home Ranger District, Watershed staff, and Coyle Outside, which provided archery and fishing instruction. Lisa Chase, a longtime Linn County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue leader, led the survival component. District parents volunteered as chaperones in the absence of high school students who have done so in past years.
At the Wildlife Biology station, Students picked apart owl droppings.
“Do not eat anyting out of the owl pellets,” a parent intoned.
“I can’t wait to tell my mom I was doing this,” a student said as she picked through a pellet.
Vernon said the window of warm weather allowed kids to go swimming and try the camp’s giant swing on Thursday, June 2.
“It was amazing, he said of the weather. “Part of the goal is for kids just to have a good experience outdoors. “