Boy, what a week!  It was extremely interesting with tons of new knowledge to learn and we were busy, busy, and busy.  Even though the week included long days and always went into the evenings, it was great.  The various speakers, classroom activities, and all the fieldtrips made it more than worth-while.  All of the new information makes me want to integrate it into my classroom as soon as possible.                                                                                                                                                                                  

The week really started when we arrived Sunday evening.  After checking in, I was immediately amazed at all the supporting materials available.  One of the most important pieces we each received was our journal, which we would fire-decorate and use throughout the week.   After introductions, we started Monday morning with Colorado State District Forester, Ken Grant.  Ken gave an interesting overview of Colorado’s forests.  An interesting  part of Ken’s presentation, and one we take for granted, is the variety of trees we have here in Colorado and how different species have adapted to the different elevations we have here.  I want to use that in my classroom to not only learn about Colorado’s vegetation, but why does it differ by elevation.  What does elevation do for the trees?  Are there other factors present?  After Ken’s talk we had the pleasure learning about what many of us would consider one of the most interesting parts of the week: dendrochronology.  Laurie Huckaby, from the U.S. Forest Service, led us on an exploration of this science and brought lots of tree cookies and cores for us to examine. This is one topic I will definitely use in my classroom.  Besides using tree rings to understand the parts of trees and its’ age, I would like to use it in Language Arts to have the kids write about their lives when the tree was at a certain age. I’m also going to coordinate with our Social Studies teacher to talk about events that happened during the tree’s life. The PLT Activity Guide has many good activities and worksheets for this.  Later in the afternoon we met with Craig Goodell, the BLM’s fire mitigation and education specialist.  Craig, who would be with us most of the week, took us to Dalla Mountain Park to show us some ongoing fuel mitigation efforts. It was good to get out and hike, and we also got to watch Laurie and Craig core some trees.  After that we had dinner at Durango’s Science Museum and watched the movie “Fire Wars” which was very good.  I had seen it previously on PBS and will watch it again if it comes back on.  After a long first day it was good to get back to my room and get some rest.

On Tuesday we had our first look at the Missionary Ridge fire when we drove to Vallecito Reservoir and took a hike hosted by Larry Eads. It was our first real look at the fire’s effects.  We viewed the down and dead trees, but also the myriad of new growth as a result of the fire. We also met with Rodney Rogers and looked for invasive weeds.  I would like to have a copy of his weed identification book, but even with the book it was hard to identify every weed.  After lunch we took a quick drive with Craig Goodell to view a mitigated area treated with a prescribed burn.  Another of the week’s highlights occurred when we donned our firefighters gear and built a fireline.  We only worked for a few minutes and most of us needed a break.  How do real firefighters do it all day?    After we put our equipment away,  we took another short drive to a subdivision in the Ponderosa Pines called “Forest Lakes”.  Here we met with district fire chief, Rich Graber.  Rich explained his ongoing mitigation efforts with the subdivision’s landowners.  I want to use what homeowners can do to reduce the chance their house will burn,  in the classroom.  Activity #81 has some great ideas for the kids to do.  I always have several kids who have cabins and we can work in groups to figure out what we can do to increase the chance that the structure will survive a fire.  We may even do something on this in Computer Science as I remember seeing several interactive mitigation sites.  In the evening we met with Durango’s fire chief, Dan Noonan.  We watched his DVD of the Missionary Ridge Fire.  One thing that stuck with me was the impact the fire had on the lives of the people living in Durango.  If you could look at Chief Noonan’s life as a tree cookie, there would surely be a fire scar the year of the Missionary Ridge fire.

Wednesday started with a presentation from Butch Knowlton, the Directory of Emergency Preparedness.  We then took a tour of the Interagency Fire Management buildings with Craig.  We checked out an Initial Response Fire Truck, the warehouse which supplies firefighters, and the fire dispatch office.  There we were shown a computer monitor which had the location and type of all the fire air units in the Country.  Before we left, Craig Goodell let us actually get in a firefighters emergency fire tent.  You would have to know it’s life or death if you had to deploy one.  We then went to a new development west of Durango called “Twin Buttes”.  Marie Irwin showed us how the developer is being very ecology proactive as it is being built.  After lunch we headed to another area hit by the Missionary Ridge Fire, Lemon Lake.  We met John Ey, who is in charge of the dam and surrounding area for the Florida Water District.  John explained how the intenseness of the fire on the hillside next to the dam’s outlet caused the soil to become extremely susceptible to erosion, which could have covered the dam’s outlet with soil and debris.  John explained his emergency response actions after the fire, which kept most of the soil and debris in place.  The hillsides are now lush with vegetation.  Here’s where I would like to do an experiment with the intensity of fire with my kids.  I would like to build three fires with different intensities.  We could then watch and journal about what and when any vegetation returns.  I’m going to have to think about this experiment some more because fire and schools don’t normally go together.  After dinner we learned how we could use GPS units and Google Earth in the classroom from Steve Jennings.  The one site, ERSI, I had not seen before and I want to revisit it.

On Thursday we were tired but looking forward to visiting Mesa Verde.  We first toured the Cliff Palace, which is always enlightening, and then drove to the Park’s Fire Headquarters.  Mesa Verde’s new fire chief, Steve Underwood, talked to us about fire ecology and then took us to an unburned area to show us what continued fire suppression has done to the Park’s fuel load.  I’m beginning to understand why we need fires and why it’s such a struggle to put one out.  We then met at Lou Boren’s ranch for dinner.  It was nice to have a relaxing dinner with classmates.  It was there I met J.B. (didn’t catch his last name) who gave us a demonstration on his company’s software which projects Google Earth images onto a sandbox which can be used for various applications including wildfire training.  It can be used to show the spread of a fire over time and with the different fuels that are on the land.  It was pretty cool to watch but I was wondering how valuable a tool Craig Goodell thought it was.

Our last day was a day of activities and Gabrielle Mora’s talk and activity on “What Animals Do” was excellent.  This needs to be in any classroom discussion on wildfire to counteract the perception that wildfire kills most animals.  We ended with prize drawings and I felt pretty good considering I picked out a book on the fires in the early part of the 19^th century, a tree ring with a fire scar, and a fire emergency tent.  All in all it was a very interesting week.  I came away with an enormous amount of new wildfire knowledge and resources, and a desire and commitment to impart this learning with my students.  Thanks to all.