Students on a fall field trip to Duckabush Oxbow and Wetlands Preserve.
For so many of us, our abiding love of the land and desire to protect it grew from experiences we had as children. The Land Trust recognizes the fundamental importance of nurturing this love of the land in the next generation, and of hands-on outdoor learning experiences for kids.
High school student gathering data to assess forest health in the Quimper Wildlife Corridor.
More than a decade ago, acting in response to the needs of East Jefferson County teachers, Jefferson Land Trust began to develop youth education programming that supports the work teachers are doing in the classroom with meaningful field experiences at many of our our nature preserves.
Since then, with the support of dedicated education volunteers, our youth education programs have become a fixture for local public school students, engaging thousands of children in impactful educational opportunities on the land — at no cost to schools.
Today, we work with approximately 900 students per year, offering 14 unique programs and 30-40 trips and classroom visits, across 3rd-5th, 7th-8th, and 9th-12th grades. Programs are split into fall, winter, and spring seasonal offerings.
Students during a field trip to Valley View Forest Preserve
Over the years, we’ve continued to invest in these highly valued programs, expanding them to serve each public school district and many grade levels, and designing them to connect and build on previous years. Over the last few years, we’ve also worked to ensure our programs align with state learning standards. And this past summer, we made a significant investment in our education programs by hiring Devon Buckham as Education Coordinator — our organization’s first-ever position dedicated solely to education.
A former public school classroom teacher, Devon initially engaged with the Land Trust through our education programs, first as a parent chaperone and then as an education volunteer. Since joining our staff, he’s hit the ground running, working closely with students, teachers, school districts, and our amazing education volunteers to run and expand our education programming.
Education Coordinator Devon Buckham (left) and Preserve Manager Carrie Clendaniel mapping the trail as they prepare for a field trip in the Quimper Wildlife Corridor.
“I came into this organization and inherited amazing programs that have been serving the community for more than 12 years,” Devon says. “From the very start, those programs were created in a model of true collaboration with the school districts. That’s not the norm for a lot of outdoor education programs.”
He continues, “We’re lightyears ahead of where the model for outdoor education is headed in terms of developing partnerships and collaboration. Our range and breadth — offering unique programming to many grades, instead of just one grade or one classroom — is also unusual, and special.”
Our program offerings are not limited to our popular field trips, but also include providing connected classroom lesson plans, offering classroom visits, and when necessary, funding the school buses required to take students to our preserves — the costs of which can be a barrier to providing outdoor education in any school district.
We’re excited to tell you more about the invaluable educational experiences the Land Trust proudly offers to our community — and share what we’re doing to serve even more students, now and into the future.
“We often refer to the work we’re doing as ‘field trips,’ but the reality is that they’re field experiences,” Devon says. “From the teachers, I hear a lot about how these experiences are more than just a field trip — they’re a way to tie what they’re teaching in the classroom to the real world. And not only that, but in these students’ own backyards. That changes these students’ relationships with that knowledge, and empowers them to take ownership of that knowledge.”
Students and volunteers on a field trip to Duckabush Oxbow and Wetlands Preserve in fall 2023.
Our field experiences represent a multidisciplinary approach that not only accommodates diverse learning styles, but offers unique opportunities for learning that students can’t get in the classroom.
“I receive a lot of positive feedback during field trips from the students, who are very excited to be out there and share what they’re learning,” Devon says.
Many students also share their excitement with their families by bringing them back out to the preserves they’ve visited. Land Trust staff members are always delighted to encounter students with their families enjoying the nature preserves after school and on weekends.
Devon says parents regularly stop him to tell him how excited their kids are about Land Trust programs — and not just younger kids. “Recently the mother of a high school student stopped me and told me how impactful the field experience was for that student, and shared that since then, the student has continued to look for ways to be involved in the community and to share ideas about what the future of this place could look like.”
Some of the 2023 Youth Corps crew enjoying a sunny day.
By providing hands-on learning on the lands that surround and sustain us, we’re offering local students an opportunity to develop a deep sense of ownership of and connection to these places — and inspiring, informing, and empowering the next generation of land stewards who will be responsible for caring for our community’s most precious natural places and resources.
We also engage and support local youth through our Spring Break Youth Corps paid internship program for high school students (applications for 2025 open March 14), our annual Fairbank Award for Youth Environmental Action (winner to be announced in March), summer and winter internships (like our recent winter intern Hazel Windstorm), and more.
High school student on a field trip in the Quimper Wildlife Corridor.
Many exciting things are in store for our youth education programs. With Devon onboard, we’re currently working on increasing accessibility; developing programming to serve non-science classes, like math and language arts; continuing to align our programs with changing state science standards, social/emotional learning benchmarks, and “Since Time Immemorial” curriculum; and working to ensure our programs are annually offered in all four school districts (Port Townsend, Chimacum, Quilcene, and Brinnon).
“Some of the things I’m most excited about in our current work is increasing accessibility for all students,” Devon says. “This means modifying some of our programming and our instructional techniques, as well as considering where we teach specific programs.”
“Accessibility” can look like a lot of different things. It includes students with mobility issues, so we’ve worked to increase access at our nature preserves through building accessible trails (like the ones at Illahee Preserve and Valley View Forest Preserve), and running field trips at those preserves with such access.
It also involves the continued commitment to providing high-quality academic programming that supports the needs of classroom teachers and administrators without any cost to the public schools.
For the Land Trust, increasing accessibility also includes developing instructional techniques to serve students who may struggle in a traditional classroom setting: they may be auditory or visual learners, have a hard time with text-based work, or struggle to remain engaged in a lesson while sitting in a classroom all day.
A field trip to Valley View Forest Preserve in 2023. With help from local disability advocate groups, in 2023 we installed a wheelchair accessible trail leading from the Valley View parking lot to the community pavilion.
“The Land Trust’s programs already offer ways to provide that same lesson in a format that’s accessible — we call that multiple modalities in education,” Devon explains. “We’re doing a lot of work around that now, to make sure that if a student does have barriers to participation, we’re finding ways to address those barriers and encourage participation.”
We’re also expanding our offerings to serve non-science classrooms. We recently piloted a new program with a Port Townsend High School language arts class that brought 90 students out to the Quimper Wildlife Corridor. Students used this experience to inform their writing project focused on housing, land use, and community resilience. “That program was really impactful for the teachers, and for the students — that’s one I’ve heard from several parents about. We’re looking to formalize this programming and see it grow,” Devon says.
We’ve also been working with the Port Townsend School District to create a math-based program to support high school students. The “Forest Math” program provides students with an opportunity to connect what they’re learning in the classroom to real world applications.
Participants in the 2024 Tidelands to Timberline course observing frilled dogwinkle eggs at Indian Island County Park.
With enthusiastic responses from students and teachers, we look forward to building out these programs in math, language arts, and beyond.
As we look ahead, we’re also eager to develop more community education programming, including programming for families and adults. In the meantime, we continue to offer our popular annual Tidelands to Timberlines natural history course, which begins in April.
We also encourage adults and children alike to check out Nature in Your Neighborhood On Demand on our website. Initially developed as an online program to bring a little nature into people’s lives during the COVID pandemic, each module focuses on a different aspect of Jefferson County natural history — from birds to trees and from insects to mammals — and has activities and resources you can use to deepen your understanding and appreciation of the wonderful natural heritage we share.
Jefferson Land Trust was founded by volunteers, and volunteers have always formed the backbone of our education programs.
“Without our amazing volunteers, we can’t deliver this popular programming on a regular basis,” Devon says. “As we gain more volunteers who are confident in their abilities to help deliver our programs, we can provide more and more education opportunities.”
With our increased capacity, we’re currently formalizing our education volunteer program by organizing more trainings, creating mentor partnerships to pair experienced volunteers with newer ones, and seeking new ways to share the excitement of being part of this program.
Education Volunteer Herb Tracy helping lead a field trip at Valley View Forest in the community pavilion.
“We debrief every field trip after the students board the buses and drive away and it’s really fun to share and hear about their highlights — a thing they learned from a student, or that moment of excitement when they witnessed a student make a discovery. Those are incredibly rewarding experiences,” Devon says.
Are you interested in becoming a Land Trust education volunteer? No education experience is necessary! Please click here to learn more, and reach out to Education Coordinator Devon Buckham with any questions by emailing dbuckham@[at]saveland.org.
This year, we’re focusing on the importance of youth outdoor education at our annual virtual Conservation Breakfast on Thursday, March 6, from 9:00 – 10:30 am!
During this year’s program, “Reconnecting Kids and Nature Through Outdoor Education,” we’ll welcome Richard Louv, author of the groundbreaking bestseller Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Louv will discuss the connection between mental well-being, learning, and access to outdoor experiences, as well as the challenges and solutions surrounding Nature-Deficit Disorder.
You’ll also hear from the Land Trust staff and local educators about how we’re connecting local children to nature by making outdoor place-based education accessible to all local public school students.
We hope you’ll join us!
