River Study: Junior River Rangers

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with Sarah Burskey, a ranger from the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Program and Robin Stuart, Education Coordinator from Mass Audubon's Drum Farm Wildlife Sanctuary. Both naturalists are helping our grade-level team coordinate a number of environmental education activities including the following:

• Naturalist visit
• Headstarting wood frogs and the spade foot toad
• Vernal pool and river walks/exploration
• River/wetlands study

As I collect and coordinate the information for this study, there's lots of good work to do which includes:

• Personalizing the Junior River Ranger booklet and tasks
• Coordinating a Junior River Ranger badge ceremony at the end of the school year
• Planning the vernal pool/river hikes
• Preparing the learning experiences which will teach children about the Sudbury River as well as the National Wild and Scenic River program and system
• Contacting our high school environmental teacher to see if she wants to get involved
• Synthesizing these efforts with our current science standards and life science efforts

When meeting with Sarah, I was excited when she noted that having a National Wild and Scenic River in your backyard is like having a National Park in your backyard. I'm looking forward to using her words to encourage students and their families to better understand, care for, and protect our school community's natural environment and resources.