Connecting community and nature through education
Connecting community and nature through education
By Freya Elias I have a haven. A haven I’ve visited daily since the pandemic. I call it the Treesa Loop. This name originated when I started climbing the tree at the top – Treesa, I call her. This sanctuary on public lands keeps me safe. My family and I hike up to my sanctuary …
By Jessica Wiles In March of 2020, when the great wave of the pandemic crashed into Montana, it halted all plans. It halted all plots for a winter escape. Most ominously for Montana families like mine, it halted all child care. And in its wake, customary strategies for managing daily life with small children vanished. …
Every year thousands of Montanans venture onto National Forest lands in the winter for skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and other fun winter activities. Unfortunately, some of these people get into trouble by not being prepared. You can avoid becoming a statistic by following these 5 easy steps. 1) Get a Map and Know Your Route – …
The new year is upon us, and for many, it couldn’t come soon enough. 2020 was a challenging to say the least. The Coronavirus pandemic brought fear, isolation and uncertainty to our lives in ways we couldn’t have imagined, and contentious civil and political events have further strained the fabric of our society. We are …
Please email rebecca.skeldon@usda.gov to register for SnowSchool in 2019! We’re sorry to say that our webform service is unavailable this year for SnowSchool. The following is a current list of available dates, updated weekly as we book programs. January 8 (am only), January 23, January 29, January 30, February 20, February 22, February 26, February …
Outdoor Explorers are full of creativity! The matches were invited to attend Nature Craft Night, a beloved tradition in Helena. Every year, kids and adults come to the Forest Service office to kick off the season with crafts to decorate their Christmas trees or homes. The Outdoor Explorers spent late November covered in glitter, ink, frosting and …
Outdoor explorers sometimes get to venture indoors when it comes to historic sites on the forest. That was the theme of the day at Charter Oak Mine, the “Outdoor Explorers Mentoring Program” October outing. OEMP is a program of the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization, aiming to get kids and their matches outside and investigating …
We offer year-round programming in schools on topics of nature, conservation, stewardship and natural history. We are happy to come to the classroom or plan a field trip! If you want a fun lesson but don’t have a topic in mind, view the following document for example programs. We love to do games and crafts …
The Moose Creek Ranger Station in the Ten Mile drainage west of Helena was constructed early in the 20th Century. Evidence from old maps and records, and a pencil date exposed on a wall during restoration work, indicate that the ranger station was built in 1908. Agency correspondence indicates that the station was fully operating …
OPEN to Elk, Deer, Bear, Moose, Hikers, Bikers, Skiers and other outdoor enthusiasts. Now we can keep it that way! For years, local hikers, bikers and skiers used the galaxy of trails on the Spring Hill claim block, located three miles south of Helena encompassing both Grizzly and Oro Fino Gulches with no regard to …