Youth Education

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Youth Education and school field trips are coordinated by tree farm staff, often in cooperation with one of our partners and a cadre of specially trained volunteers. Our education programs are inquiry based so that students take an active role in their learning experience. While hiking the tree farm, students may learn about local history and forest management, plant identification and forest measurement, wildlife, orienteering and more.

Teachers and youth group leaders shape the focus of each field trip to Hopkins Tree Farm-which can include service projects and alternate curriculum focus such as language arts and literature. All grades, ages and youth groups are invited to enjoy an enriching experience in our woodland.

Vocational Forestry Students

Students from the North Clackamas School District's Sabin-Schellenberg Center have been working at the Hopkins Demonstration Forest for nearly 10 years. During this time, a special partnership has been forged with Forests Forever, Inc. designed to benefit both organizations. Advanced students from the Center's Urban Forestry and Natural Resource Management Program come to Hopkins dozens of times during the school year. They arrive by 9:30 am and work until 12:30 pm. While at the tree farm, they learn by doing practical forestry projects designed to further their learning and understanding of forests and their management.

The students are guided in the projects they work on by tree farm staff, board members and community volunteers. Students work in small teams to accomplish projects approved the Board of Directors. The Board sets the standards and criteria for project completion. Often an individual Board member or another volunteer adult works to assist the students stay the course during the year.

During the current school year, teams of students work on a variety of projects at Hopkins Tree Farm.

This year's projects include:

• Cutting and splitting firewood
• Slash disposal and burning
• Herbicide application and animal damage control in new plantation
• Tree planting
• Pruning young conifer stands