Students spend a day learning in the woods during annual School Forestry Tour

GLIDE — Hundreds of fifth graders from across Douglas County traveled to the Glide Educational Forest on Wednesday morning to take part in the annual Douglas County School Forestry Tour.

WILL GESCHKE The News-Review Apr 20, 2023 Updated Apr 20, 2023

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Students use crosscut saws during the annual Douglas County School Forestry Tour held Wednesday at the Glide Educational Forest.

GLIDE — Hundreds of fifth graders from across Douglas County traveled to the Glide Educational Forest on Wednesday morning to take part in the annual Douglas County School Forestry Tour.

Students rotated through numerous stations, learning about a wide range of forestry topics.

The event was organized by the Oregon State University Extension Service and was supported by 33 different private companies, government agencies and local nonprofits to create the day-long event.

Alicia Christiansen, the OSU Extension’s Forestry and Natural Resources agent for Douglas County, said this year’s event was the 60th time the forestry tour had been held. It was interrupted for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My favorite part is just seeing how excited kids get about forestry and natural resources,” Christiansen said. “The forestry industry is such a big part of Douglas County and I think it’s really important to understand this industry and what it means to our economy, our environment, our communities.”

During the forestry tour, students went through seven different stations, learning topics such as wildlife, forest products, forest management, fire management, fisheries and hydrology, tree identification and archeology.

Students then went to a lunch break, before making their way to more hands-on activities in the afternoon, when they had a chance to use crosscut saws and participate in choker races — where two students had to be the fastest to attach a logging choker to a small log and drag it back and forth across a small surface.

Kids were having a great time, even during the cold, rainy weather.

“I’m loving it,” said Porter Smith, a student at Sutherlin West Intermediate School. “My favorite part was the wildfire one, it lets us understand how we can stop the wildfires.”

For Ricky Hayes, who goes to Sunnyslope Elementary School in Roseburg, the favorite part was as simple as being able to hike in the woods. Dillon Leveal, a student from North Douglas Elementary School in Drain, said his favorite part of the day was eating lunch.

The students will be joined by hundreds more over the next two days. Christiansen said around 760 fifth graders from across the county are registered.

Walking through the forest, students had a palpable excitement about the activities they were taking part in. Christiansen said that it’s a high-energy day for students and one that she hopes can be truly memorable.

“This is a really important introduction,” Christiansen said. “Hopefully, this can continue lifelong learning and support of our forest resources.”

Will Geschke is a multimedia reporter for The News-Review. He can be reached at wgeschke@nrtoday.com.