Program gave kids day in the woods

For 23 years Glen MacPhee has helped run the Outdoor Environmental Education program for fifth-graders in the Central Valley School District. Last week, however, he taught students about wildlife in the woods of the Liberty Lake County Park for the last time. The relatively inexpensive program has been a victim of the district’s budget cuts.

“There’s absolutely no other place better than this,” he said of the park. “It has all the basics, all the animals you’d expect to find.”

The park includes a mix of ecosystems, including a creek, a marsh, ponderosa pine forest and cedar forest. Students from Adams Elementary participating in the program’s final session also got a bonus – a young moose was spotted just off a trail chewing on marsh grasses.

MacPhee, who started the program along with fifth-grade teacher Bob Liopold, has stayed with the program even though he retired from teaching several years ago. “I think it’s important for the continuity of the program,” he said. “It’s just a lot of fun teaching kids who have not had experiences in the forest.”

The students were organized into four groups and spent their day working through four stations. At one location they learned about the aquifer and in another they checked a small creek to see how many bugs and insects they could find. Experts from Spokane County and the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District helped lead the sessions and two P.E. teachers led a ropes course to teach teamwork. All the sessions were hands-on, with students doing tests and collecting information.

Student Meghan Rockwood liked searching the creek for invertebrates, which thrive in unpolluted waters. “There’s a ton,” she said. “That’s telling us it’s nice and nonpolluted water.”

She was also one of the lucky students who got to see the moose, something she hadn’t seen before. “I am having fun,” she said.

Student Claire Sholtz said she liked hiking through the woods. “You can find a lot of stuff,” she said. “We found bones of a deer.

“I like it. I think it’s fun.”

Wildlife is literally steps away from the trails that run through the county park. A beaver dam crosses the creek right near the trailhead, with freshly gnawed logs lying next to the trail. It was near the dam that the young moose was spotted, though it had wandered off by the time students had their lunch and trekked down the trail again. A bullfrog, named “Jeremiah” by the staff, made his presence known with deep croaks.

Having such an education experience for kids who may have never set foot in the woods is important, MacPhee said. One student recently asked him if he was in charge of watering all the trees in the park. “They really don’t know,” he said. “It’s been tremendously beneficial for kids.”

The program costs about $15,000 a year to run, mostly for substitute teachers and transportation costs. Every fifth-grader in the district cycles through, which takes about 20 days. MacPhee was disappointed to learn that the program had been cut, but remains optimistic. “My reaction was just because they cut it doesn’t mean it’s not going to be,” he said. “We’ll just see how things work out.”

Program director Chris Berard, a Liberty Lake fifth-grade teacher, shared his optimism, though he understands why the program was cut. “We believe as time goes on we can bring the program back,” he said. “We’re going to be looking for funding.”