Scott Swanson
In a “get-to-know-you”
meeting for representatives of various area organizations and
government agencies who gathered Thursday, Feb. 20, to talk about how
to get local youth into the outdoors.
The group gathered at the Community
Center under the leadership of Laura Goodrich, who is serving as
on-the-ground director of Sweet Home All Lands Collaborative, a
group of local leaders who have been working since 2012 to coordinate
land and watershed management in the South Santiam watershed. Their
goal is to increase economic use of the forest, environmental and
forest health, improve quality of life in the area and protect
cultural resources.
Monday, March 10, SHALC will assume
leadership of the effort to establish a community forest and
recreational trail east of Sweet Home (see story on page 1).
Goodrich told representatives of local
schools, the Boys and Girls Club, the city and assorted individuals
interested in youth that her intent is to “get kids into the
outdoors and into the conversation” about how to get young
people active in outdoor activities.
The meeting was basically an
opportunity for participants to provide information on their
organizations’ programs for youths.
Julie Fisher, a planning assistant
for the City of Sweet Home, who is responsible for planning the
city’s Summer Fun in the Parks program, said that program has
continued for a decade and aims to have local children experience
each of the city’s parks.
Some of the most popular activities
offered in the program in recent years have been river float trips
based at Northside Park, Pacific Tree Climbers visits to Sankey Park
to give youngsters the opportunity to climb tall Douglas firs, and
the water activity day at Northside Park. Participants range from
age 4 to 12, she said.
“We try to use each park at least
once,” she said. “Some residents don’t even realize these
parks exist.”
– N U.S. Forest Service archaeologist
Tony Farque, a longtime tour leader for the Sweet Home Ranger
District, said his goal is to “try to get kids into the national
forest.”
Most of his tours involve schools, he
said, while he leads adult tours during the summer.
The biggest hindrance in getting
students to the forest, and something other participants echoed, is
transportation costs. Tour groups come from as far away as Portland.
“It’s mostly schools that can
provide transportation,” Farque said.
Popular tour destinations for
youngsters include the Santiam Wagon Road, the Hackleman Old Growth
grove, the area around Mountain House, and the “star
attraction:” Cascadia Cave, which offers “8,000 years of
use and the largest and most complex rock art in the Northwest”
with well over 150 rock carvings.
He said he’s pretty booked up during
the school year, but could add “eight or 10 more tours”
during the summer months.
His tours include discussions of
landscape and management issues, the “leave-no-trace”
philosophy, but mostly historic themes, he said.
“For kids, history’s important,”
Farque said. “It’s great to talk about animals, trees and
plants, but I’ve always felt that the human aspect is interesting.
There’s a lot to talk about.”
Stefanie Gatchell, who helps
organize the Heritage Natural Resource Hikes offered by the Sweet
Home Ranger District, said children are welcome to those events if
they are accompanied by a chaperone. The district offers about 20 of
the hikes throughout the year, focusing on such activities as berry
picking, mushroom location and identification, plant and tree
identification, cultural and historical topics and more.
“A lot of people don’t realize all
the materials people pull out of the forest,” she said, noting that
some currently popular items include princess pine and Oregon grape.
On March 28 it will conduct its annual
snowshoe hike for youngsters 12 and over, which has openings, she
said.
“Kids killin’ it in the snow,”
Gatchell quipped.
The ranger district is also a major
player in the Outdoor School held each spring at Camp Tadmor for
local students, and has been one of the agencies involved in trail
and lake cleanup events on National Public Lands Day in late
September, which attract young participants. And it is seeking grant
funding this year for a campout it has held in the past for youths
and their parents, which, she said has received strong positive
reviews.
She said district personnel are also
available to help with service learning events put on by schools.
Also, the district hopes to expand last
year’s Youth Conservation Corps program, which put four local teens
to work for most of the summer doing activities ranging from
improving habitat and feeding conditions for elk and fish to placing
markers on storm drains in Sweet Home requesting that people not pour
motor oil down the drains.
Gatchell said that during the visit in
December by Livability Initiative representatives, local high school
students brought up the idea of establishing an Adventure Club.
“We’re open to developing that,”
she said.
Sweet Home Librarian Rose Peda told
about the summer reading program, which includes many activities held
outdoors. She said the biggest hits last summer were a heavy
equipment display put on by the county and a juggler, whose
performance drew other passersby.
Peda said she would like to see more
youngsters get involved in the free, incentive-laden program, which
offers age-appropriate activities for pre-schoolers to teens.
“What bothers me is the number of
kids who actually sign up,” she said. “I know we’re competing
with (vacation Bible schools) but I would like to get more kids
involved.”
Another problem is lack of space for
activities such as OMSI science activities. Most reading program
events are held on 13th Avenue, which is closed off
immediately in front of the library.
Shalene Gill of the Boys and Girls
Club outlined the organization’s summer day camp program, which
includes field trips that include fishing at Foster Lake or the
Sunnyside ponds, hikes, the beach, and participation in the library
reading program when schedules allow for that.
One emphasis, she said, is public
service.
“I always bring garbage bags and when
we see trash, the kids pick it up,” Gill said. “The kids love to
do that. It makes them feel good.”
She said she’s working on getting club
members involved in an Adopt a Trail program.
“It would be great for the kids to
get out in the community and get exercise and do community service.”
Boys and Girls Club Executive Director
Kris Latimer said the club is always looking for opportunities to
partner with other agencies and organizations.
“We don’t have a lot of staff to do
things by ourselves,” she said.
The club is also working to “stem
that gap between Sweet Home and Lebanon kids that seems to occur”
in opportunities for the children, she said. “A lot of kids we take
to the coast have never been to the beach.”
Sweet Home School District Supt.
Don Schrader noted that the school district offers free meals for
children during the summer and a swimming program at the pool, which
youngsters can take advantage of.
Kristen Adams of the high school Career
Center said the high school and junior high have a wide variety of
clubs available to students, many with outdoor emphases, such as the
reptile interest club at the junior high and the Forestry Club at the
high school.
Also, Oregon State University holds a
“strong summer program” that Sweet Home teens have participated
in as recently as last summer, mostly focusing on science,
engineering and math. Portland State also offers summer programs for
youths.
One of the biggest hindrances, she and
others agreed, is the cost of transporting youngsters to such
activities and other outdoor events.
“Transportation is the big one I run
into,” Adams said. “I can’t get kids there.”
– Arlene Paschen of the Sweet Home
Beautification Committee said she’s interested in getting youngsters
involved in the group’s efforts and noted that several groups of
children and teens participated in such activities in the last year.
She said she is also inviting
youngsters to participate and perform at the group’s Arts and Crafts
Festival during the Oregon Jamboree Aug. 1-3 this year.
“We would like to involved children’s
groups,” she said. “We’re searching for ideas to get the
community involved.”
Goodrich said she has surveys
circulating throughout the community to get input from youths,
parents and those involved in outdoor activities for young people.
She said another meeting to follow up on last week’s will be held in
late March or early April “to firm up these partnerships.”
The
survey for middle and high school students is available athttps://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YoungAdultRecreationSurvey.
It asks teens about their favorite outdoor activities, why those
activities are important to them, how often they engage in them and
what steps could be taken to increase their recreation in the
outdoors.
The
survey for parents, which asks similar questions, is athttps://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ParentRecreationSurvey.
The
survey for education and recreation providers who work with youth is
athttps://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SummerYouthOutdoorEducationandRecreationProvidersSurvey.
It asks what activities the person or organization has provided, the
success of those activities, plans for additional activities and what
it would take to make those activities successful, what types of
partnerships exist between organizations that provide youth
activities and the desire to further those partnerships.
The
deadline for all three surveys is Friday, March 7.