Chimacum students took a field trip to Duckabush Oxbow and Wetlands Preserve in November, during salmon spawning season. (Note the salmon remains on the ground.)
4th grade student at Valley View Forest during a November field trip.
Over the past decade, Jefferson Land Trust’s youth educational programming has reached thousands of East Jefferson County students with field-based, localized learning experiences on our nature preserves. We provide field trips at no cost to schools, and strive to be responsive to the needs of individual schools, grades, and classrooms with a variety of offerings.
This fall was packed full of fun field trips, with 550 first- through twelfth-grade students from the Port Townsend, Chimacum, and Quilcene school districts visiting Duckabush Oxbow and Wetlands Preserve, Illahee Preserve, Valley View Forest, and Snow Creek Forest Preserve.
With the help of enthusiastic teachers and classroom volunteers, Land Trust staff, volunteers, and AmeriCorps crew members led students in hands-on activities and learning games designed to support their in-class science curriculum — covering subjects like forest health and plant diversity, the salmon life cycle, ecosystems, and more.
Next semester, these classes will join us for additional field trips that will build on what they learned this fall in the classroom and on the land. We’re also excited to once again host Spring Break Youth Corps, our annual paid internship for high school students.
