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22 April ~2008

I took some time off work in the middle of the day to lead two nature programs, then stayed late to make it up.  Driving up there is a drag, as driving anywhere often is, but once I am there at the  nature center in the pines, and the kids are streaming out of their bus full of enthusiasm for their day off in the mountains,  I am glad I take the time for this volunteer work.  This is the sixteenth year I have been leading nature walks.

The children use cameras while on our walk, to take photos that the teacher can show them when they are back at class.  I delete some of the overly silly ones, such as their friends making faces at the camera.  Some are precious, showing the world from a child's perspective, like this one that one of the children took of the old Ponderosa Pine:


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On our walk we saw a Mountain Chickadee up close.  I whistled its song:  'fee, bee, bee,' which as I explained really means 'hey sweetie, hey sweetie,', since the little male bird is hoping to attract a mate.

I asked them to be on the lookout for the first spring beauty blooms, the flower that waits until late morning warmth before it opens its white or pink petals.  I stopped next to a whole slew of them, and told the children to look close.  You should of heard their excited voices when they spotted them.

I told the children how my daughter and her friends did a 4th grade science project where they measured the solar intensity, the wind, the soil and air temperature and the width of the flowers and tried to figure out what factors were correlated with the flower's opening.  They found when the soil temperature was 68 degrees the flowers would open.  

Only a few of the kids were still listening by the time I got to the 68 degrees soil temperature part.  They were so excited to be in the mountains - standing and talking for very long just doesnt cut it.  I moved them out and we walked hard, which is a good way to introduce them to nature - to feel the soil under their feet as they scan the landscape, looking for something magical or interesting.  After  a good walk they are more inclined to slow down and listen to me talk about mountain lions or aspen trees or coyote scat or mountain adventures with bears.

 Walking is a simple and effective way to feel a part of the place that you live.

I explained something of ecology, that the northern forests, like this one, are called 'the lungs of the earth.'    I explained that most of the land mass of the earth is in the northern hemisphere, and the vast forests of spruce and fir and pine give off oxygen that we all breathe in.

This seemed like a special day .  I am not sure why, the children were kind of wild.  Perhaps it is because spring has truly arrived, by the testimony of the 70 degree days and the Claytonia in bloom. (Spring Beauty).   Maybe it is because this is such good work, walking along forest and meadow paths and sharing my lifelong interest and love of nature with children and their parents.

And maybe it is because when you get older you start to realize there are much fewer springs left than you have lived through.  With each one you feel the power and beauty of the season change that much more.

Perhaps some of those children walking along with me and their parents and teacher got a spark of the magic and mystery of wildness, as I did when I was their age.  Who knows what it could grow into?


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