Twenty-five first-graders near Brookings, OR, are learning about forest stewardship hands-on, thanks to OSWA member Norma Fitzgerald. A former teacher herself, Fitzgerald offered each child their own piece of land to nurture on the 160 acres she owns just off Highway 101, south of Thomas Creek Bridge. The generous offer to the local school district has attracted considerable community interest and sparked the imaginations of the students.

Through the project, the first-graders are being taught scientifically based research. They periodically visit their plots and collect data, gaining insight as to how the forest repairs and regenerates itself. According to Dan Rotterman, first-grade teacher, it has been an excellent way for the children to understand the ecosystems at work in the forest. The students are learning the role that animals, soil and the water cycle play in the forest, as well as how the seed cycle influences forest health.

Even when the students aren't on their little pieces of land, they are thinking about them when in the classroom. "We came out here in the fall (2003) before the winter rains had begun," said Rotterman, "and on the first rainy day I said, 'think about your little piece of property... I wonder how it's changing. I wonder how the rain is encouraging the little things to grow.' Then, revisiting again in the spring, it was terrific for the children to listen to the birds and see the iris and the violets blooming and the fiddlehead ferns appear."

During the students' most recent "land lab" in May, Oregon State University Extension Agent Doug Hart, helped the kids conduct soil porosity tests. Fitzgerald, Rotterman and Zack Johnson, a student teacher, assisted as well. Each child used a hand digger to collect soil from their land in a terrarium that had a layer of rocks on the bottom. Next, the students placed a layer of vegetation on the soil to duplicate what was growing on their plot. As a final step, a small cup of water was poured on top and the students timed how long it took for the water to reach the rock base under the soil. Because the plots are all different-some plots had as many as 14 trees growing on them when they were inherited, some had none-their results varied. This provided the perfect opportunity to teach the students why.

Last fall, to initiate the "land lab" project, the first-graders had the opportunity to visit the Hastings Smith River Tree Farm. The students saw, first-hand, the way seeds are gathered from cones and how the yearlings are transplanted. Rotterman drew on the childrens' own experiences to explain how it all worked. "See how you start kindergarten and then you're transplanted into first grade, and then into second grade?" Rotterman said they saw the whole operation, and then it culminated with each of them being able to plant their own tree. "They each got two trees... one to plant on their piece of land and one to take home."