All South Lake Tahoe 6th graders spend day with Wonders of Water and Environmental Education

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The South Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition (STEEC) hosted its annual Wonders of Water and Environmental Education (WOWEE) Field Trip for all 240 South Lake Tahoe 6th graders at Echo Lakes Sno-Park on Monday, October 16.

STEEC is a collaborative network of over 25 local agencies and non-profits that work together with Alissa Zertuche of the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) Careers, Technology, and Education Department (CTE) to run place-based outdoor environmental programs for all students in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District.

Every fall, the 6th grade program features tree planting with the Sugar Pine Foundation (SPF), plus four other fun and interactive lessons taught by other STEEC member groups. This year, students enjoyed being outside on an unseasonably warm, sunny day in shorts and tee shirts as they rotated around the learning stations.

The SPF spoke to the students about the Caldor Fire, forest health, and the deadly impact of white pine blister rust – an invasive fungal pathogen that kills over 95% of white pines that it infects. At Echo Summit, the Caldor Fire wiped out many of the red fir and lodgepole, while blister rust is killing the taller, older western white pines that survived the fire.

To restore forest health and biodiversity, the SPF instructed the students on how to plant western white pine and red fir seedlings. The western white pine seedlings are the progeny of blister rust-resistant parent trees that can withstand the fungus. Planting these trees along a stretch of the Tahoe Rim Trail/Pacific Crest Trail lined with charred, dead trees from the Caldor Fire gave the students a real sense of purpose and accomplishment.

The Caldor Fire affected many of these students “pretty badly,” according to one youth because being evacuated was disruptive, traumatic, and scary. On Monday, however, the kids laughed, played, and assigned silly names to their trees as they planted together with their friends. Over 250 trees that will help heal the forest and some of these students’ wounds were planted by the next generation of forest stewards.

Expanding on the topic of forest fires and safety, Adilene Negrete and Lannette Rangel of the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the US Forest Service (LTBMU) taught the students about defensible space around homes and buildings.

“The students had some really great observations on how to create defensible space," said Rangel. "A lot of them already intuitively understood what a ladder fuel is, for instance, and they understood why it is important to create space between different trees and plants.”

A new station led by South Tahoe Refuse (STR) made learning about waste fun by incorporating a relay race to emphasize how to sort trash properly. Rylan Ruby liked this lesson the best because of the race. He enthusiastically summed up the station by saying, “We learned what the three colors of trash cans mean and how to sort out trash. I also learned that soon, in the school, there will be a food waste trash can.” It was great to see kids like Rylan so excited about trash!

Lauren Benefield and Emilie Comer from the South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) guided the students in building a “wetland in a bottle” out of layers of local, native materials like sand, soil, sticks, pine needles and other plant debris. The students then poured water through their “wetlands” to see how meadows act as a natural filter that traps sediment before it reaches Lake Tahoe.

The wetlands lesson paired well with The League to Save Lake Tahoe’s station on water quality. As teacher Sharyn Abelow said, “They learned a lot about water clarity and the students were really happy that they got to help the forest after the Caldor Fire.”

Indeed, most students were most excited about planting trees. Samuel Hernandez said his family was badly affected by the Caldor Fire and exclaimed, “My favorite station was the tree one. To help grow more trees because of the fire.”

Maria Mircheva, SPF executive director, thanked the LTBMU, LTUSD CTE, and all of the STEEC member groups for their help in making the tree planting and field trip possible. She said, “It takes collaboration between all of the different agencies to make it all work.”

“It is important to get kids outside in nature – not just a manicured park – doing hands-on work that matters and can make a real difference,” added Mircheva.

Her point hit home with young Jonathan Hernandez, who said, “It was fun to see how trees could grow into the future and how it could impact nature.”

By all accounts, spending the day outside absorbing interactive and impactful lessons was a big win for the students, teachers, STEEC agencies and, perhaps most importantly, for the betterment of our environment now and into the future.