BLM-Albuquerque Field Office Interpretive/Environmental Education Specialist Peg Sorensen works with campers on map and compass skills.

Where can a student spend all day with teachers, but have much more fun than in school? At New Mexico Forestry Camp! This six-day, residential, outdoor workshop for 13- to 18-year-olds is a great way for youth to learn about how New Mexicans use, care for, and appreciate the natural and cultural resources on their public lands. Conditions permitting, during the first full week in June each year, approximately 60 young campers attend New Mexico Forestry Camp. Forestry Camp is held at Rancho del Chaparral in the Jemez Mountains near Cuba, New Mexico. The 1,200-acre camp, located along the Rio de las Vacas (“river of the cows”), provides an ideal setting, with beautiful ponderosa pine, aspen, oak, and mixed conifer forests.

Forestry Camp is the brainchild of Betty-Jane Curry and Peggy Ohler, who are members of the Cuba Soil and Water Conservation District. Both women had observed that young people tended to come to emotional conclusions about such topics as range management and stream health, rather than basing their determinations on scientific facts. Betty-Jane and Peggy decided that some type of resource camp — where students could gain firsthand knowledge about appropriate resource decisions from the public land managers and community agencies entrusted with such decisions — would help students’ understanding immensely. Betty-Jane and Peggy contacted friends within the Bureau of Land Management, the New Mexico State Forestry Division, the USDA Forest Service, and other agencies to develop a program around understanding the “how and why” of resource management decisions. The first camp, held in 1989, was a huge success, and there has been a Forestry Camp almost every year since. Camp did not occur in 1996 and 2000 because of the extreme fire danger in the Jemez Mountains during the first week in June.

To measure the depth of the Rio de las Vacas, what better approach than to stand in the middle of the rio?

Campers arrive Sunday afternoon for the start of Forestry Camp; for some, this is their first experience away from home, family, and friends. For others, it is their first experience in platform-tent living and sharing of sleeping rooms. Sunday is spent orienting to camp life, and meeting new friends, counselors, and staff. Many of the counselors are teachers who can help campers gain the most from their time at the camp; however, many of these teachers are surprised to find that they learn as much as — if not more than — the campers themselves. For example, Omar Qureshi of the Alamo Navajo School said after his first year, “I enjoyed camp and will think about doing it again next year.” He has been a counselor at camp for three years now, and his school usually sends one or two campers as well.

Anticipation builds as Dutch ovens cook fruit cobbler during one of the evening campfires.

Counselors, who arrive on the Saturday before camp for orientation and to review the program, develop the program for the first evening’s campfire. In past years, the campfire has involved an amusing skit about rules, responsibilities, and what is expected of campers while at camp. Campers quickly discover that though the rest of New Mexico may be warm during the first part of June, evenings in the Jemez Mountains are rather cold. That chilly lesson stays with them for the rest of the week.

Monday morning can be quite a rude awakening to those not used to camp life, in which all are responsible for chores and for supporting the community. Chores are completed before a hearty breakfast is served. It is amazing to see the amounts of food these young people can eat! The remainder of the morning is spent with resource professionals and getting used to camp routine, which can be amusing in itself. A few years ago, for example, three young male campers learned a lesson in thermodynamics the hard way.

"What critters are on this tree? And by the way, what kind of tree is it?" Bob Cain, New Mexico State University forest entomologist, asks campers.

Campers are allowed to use solar showers, although regular camp shower facilities are available. These young campers dutifully set their full shower bags in the sun, but instead of using the solar-heated water at the end of the day, they announced that they would wait and take nice, hot showers in the morning. The counselors and staff grinned, but allowed the “lesson” to continue. Naturally, the campers’ “solar showers” were more of a “cold slap in the face” by the next morning. No amount of lecturing by the counselors could have provided a better lesson.

On Monday afternoon, the counselors take the campers on the same four-mile hike the counselors completed with Forestry Camp staff on the Saturday before. After 1999’s camp, counselor Kelly Deane of Belen Middle School remarked, “I learned more about the environment and vegetation on the hike because I had to keep ahead of the kids.” The hike follows a creek and some game trails, but also requires cross-country travel. Campers are encouraged to use the map and compass skills they learned earlier that morning. Some counselors feign getting lost just to encourage campers to use these skills, but everyone makes it back in time for dinner.

"Whose skull is this anyway?" Campers try to match skulls with tracks to identify animals? habitat requirements.	Conclave practice includes throwing of an atlatl, a prehistoric weapon. Bill Watley (a USDA Forest Service staffer at the time of this picture, now with BLM in Utah) oversees practice throws.

On Tuesday, campers spend most of the day with resource professionals, who provide hands-on activities and facilitate learning experiences on topics ranging from stream ecology to law enforcement. Tuesday is also the day on which campers start to practice for the “Conclave Competition,” a series of activities related to old logging contests. Forestry Camp Conclave events include an identification table, compass skills course, caber toss, match splitting, and a hatchet throw. The finals for these competitions take place on Thursday.

Wednesday is reserved for an off-site field trip designed to allow campers to experience other environments. “I thought the kids enjoyed the field trip. It’s fun to go to different places each year,” said Laurie Hinman, a counselor from Sunset Mesa School, in her evaluation of the field experience. In 2001, campers will participate in a service learning project to help in ongoing rehabilitation projects on lands burnt by the Cerro Grande Fire of 2000. In 1999, campers measured and marked the forest around the Rancho del Chaparral Girl Scout Camp so that a contractor could come in, take the marked trees, and generate a fire buffer around a portion of camp.

When live animals cooperate, the bonus for campers is tremendous.

On Thursday, campers spend the day with a resource professional of their choice, to get an in-depth view of one natural or cultural resource career. In 1999, camper Josh Fleming spent his day with the archaeologists from the City of Albuquerque Open Space Division. “I didn’t know Archaeologists could get this dirty, or that they worked with such small tools,” observed Josh. These professionals discuss career choices, education, and experience while working the campers through the resource management decision-making process from their perspectives.

Agency representatives and managers arrive on Thursday evening for a fancy barbeque, Concave Competition, and entertainment. The meat for this feast will have been slow-roasting on-site since Wednesday afternoon and driving everyone crazy with its wonderful smells. Campers participate in the finals for the Conclave Competition as agency folks cheer them on.

Campers obtain sample tree ring data to answer tree health questions.

Other evenings during the week are spent processing the events of the day or taking part in evening programs such as a segment on Bats of New Mexico. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish often demonstrates a poaching scenario, which always elicits a great laugh when the “bad guys” get caught. The campers really enjoy sitting around the campfire as cowboys sing songs or recite poetry. On at least one night, campers are treated to traditional camp sweets, such as s’mores and Dutch oven fruit cobbler.

On Friday morning, campers participate with their counselor groups in the “Natural Resource Bowl.” Designed much like the game show “Jeopardy,” this quiz-style competition provides an excellent review and evaluation of knowledge learned at camp. Questions come from presenters who have worked with the campers during the week. Campers really seem to enjoy this part of Forestry Camp, and not just because of the prizes — water bottles, candy, snacks, field guide books, flashlights, or mugs. Parents who come early to pick up the campers usually end up waiting until the “games” are over before they leave, attesting to the level of interest in these activities.

"How wide is this stream?" This low-tech, cold, wet approach helps in understanding the animals that might live there and how to keep the stream healthy.

The Cuba Soil and Water Conservation District is the main sponsor for New Mexico Forestry Camp. Additional sponsors are: the Chaparral Girl Scout Council, USDA Forest Service, New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service, Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico State Forestry and Resources Conservation Division, New Mexico Energy Minerals & Natural Resources Department (EMNRD), City of Farmington Museums, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, Recreation Equipment Incorporated (REI), City of Albuquerque Open Space Division, Society of American Foresters, National Park Service, and New Mexico Department of Agriculture.To learn more about New Mexico Forestry Camp, please contact Peg Sorensen by email at Peg_Sorensen@blm.gov or telephone (505) 761-8920.

For your chance to join other interested youth at Forestry Camp the first full week of June each year, please obtain application information from Peggy Ohler at Cuba Soil and Water Conservation District by e-mail at peggyohler@yahoo.com or by telephone at (505) 289-3950. If you’re interested in being a counselor at New Mexico Forestry Camp, please contact Peg Sorensen or Peggy Ohler as indicated above.