Bureau of Land Management Environmental Education Homepage

Time to go to work? This is a daily task that most adults do automatically, but for 8-to-12-year-olds, it can be a unique learning experience. This was the case when the Montana/Dakotas BLM State Office in Billings, Montana, scheduled a day for employees to bring a child to work. The BLM continuously strives to educate the public about our agency and its mission. At its most basic, the objective often is to get more just than a blank stare from kids when we ask the question, "What is BLM?" And how better to educate in this area than to gather together students, eager to learn about the world, and tell them what BLM is all about - in other words, bring them to work with us.

BLM-Montana/Dakotas' "Bring a Child to Work" day was kicked off with a greeting from State Director Larry Hamilton. His enthusiastic comments set the stage for an energetic day of learning, challenging questions, and interesting answers.

"Sammy Snag," the costumed keeper of the "Animal Inn," entertained the audience with animated storytelling about the value of dead, fallen trees to the survival of forest creatures. Over 550 species of birds, 300 species of mammals, 450 species of amphibians and reptiles, and nearly all fish benefit from such "animal inns" for food, nesting, or shelter. "Sammy" reminded us all to please protect trees that have trunk holes or visible nests, broken tops, or other telltale signs of animal life.

The fact that the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range is located just 30 miles from the State Office enticed the students to ask about BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program. Learning about the horses involved discussing the many Federal laws and regulations designed to protect the animals. A video showed an actual wild horse gathering and adoption that had taken place in the Pryor Mountains. Students were encouraged to take a family or school trip to that area to view these animals in the wild.

Ever see a 1,000-pound, $200,000 camera? The Printing and Graphics Section was the place to view this monstrous piece of equipment. The staff also demonstrated the various other types of graphics equipment they use to create documents and publish multi-media materials for BLM.

How the public lands are surveyed and the basics of the rectangular survey system (organized by Township, Range, and Section) got the students thinking about the vast amount of public land around them. The role of BLM surveyors was highlighted as critically important to the proper marking of property boundaries and the accurate entry of land descriptions into official records. Hands-on activities permitted the students to apply some of the methods used by surveyors for measuring distance and other surveying purposes. Public Room records were then shown to the students, and each one learned how to read and understand legal land descriptions. They were amazed at the historical value of the hundreds of bound records.

Each student also "graduated" from a crash course on the noxious weeds that are invading our public lands. The students became official "Weed Warriors" for BLM-Montana/Dakotas. A weed-picture quiz board helped kids to put names to the weeds they couldn't readily identify. And they were amazed by some of the weed characteristics they learned about, such as the gigantic, 25-foot root system of the leafy spurge plant, one of the most pervasive problem species on public lands.

Almost every kid has wanted to collects rocks at some time, and these students were awed by the many different kinds of rocks and minerals found on the public lands. It was clear from their enthusiastic reaction to the specimens on hand that we had quite a few future geologists in the making!

Last, but not least, the students were right in their element with BLM's computers. The Intranet/Internet presentation explained how homepages are developed and posted in order to electronically furnish all kinds of BLM-related information to the general public, including Net-surfing kids. They also learned how the World Wide Web has changed the way we communicate information to our internal and external customers. At the end of the day, each student was given the opportunity to use a computer to send a message to the State Director about what they learned that day.

For further information, please contact Lorrene Schardt of BLM Montana at (406) 255-2827 or e-mail lschardt@mt.blm.gov.

Please also visit the following websites:

Animal Inn
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/nr/wildlife/animalinn/

Ms. Foundation's "Take Our Daughters to Work Day"
http://www.daughtersandsonstowork.org

This page was created by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Environmental Education & Volunteers Group, 1849 C Street, Room 406-LS, Washington, DC 20240. Send comments or questions relating to accessibilty of documents to Kevin_Flynn@blm.gov Number of visitors since July 15, 2003:[an error occurred while processing this directive]

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