Intent is one thing, action quite another. What actually is occurring after a decade of quiet existence? Activities and opportunities at EarthTeach are numerous, diverse, and growing.
EarthTeach hosts school field trips for all grade levels, including: Nature awareness, observation skills, basic science, and self-expression for elementary students; natural science, ecology, environmental and arts studies for middle and high school students; geology, plant and wildlife biology; environmental education, and anthropology for college students.
Like an urban park, this forest counterpart requires care and stewardship. Youth Conservation Corps-type experiences are ongoing at EarthTeach, and its 1680 wild acres offer plenty of work opportunities. The Job Council of Southern Oregon, and many school groups, such as Ashland’s magnet school, The John Muir School, assist and volunteer in educational maintenance programs on the land year round.
Springtime in the Park not only heralds a forest in full
bloom, but full use of the Challenge Ropes course that we
have on site. Over 3000 graduates of Rogue Valley middle
schools over the past seven years have spent a day or more
on the Course that was built and is managed by
Team Synergo
of Portland. Many of these teens declare their ropes course
expereince the highpoint of their school year! Youths,
families, athletic teams, corporate staffs and several
Southern Oregon University groups use the Course to learn
about life transitions, team building, and leadership…all
intent upon having fun while getting themselves “on the
same page.” Several programs for youth at risk and
adjudicated teens have also tapped into the Park's
challenge course curriculum and facilities to produce
tremendously positive results.
Summers at EarthTeach are amazing.
2008 starts with
Coyote Trails School of
Nature.
The CTSN curriculums expose youth, teens, and families
to the benefits of wilderness through tracking,
awareness, storytelling, primitive skills, and nature
study. In addition to Fox and Bear Trails of study, CTSN
will offer adult vision questing this season.
In summer's past, parents of enthusiastic young artists
described the magic of their child’s week of painting,
dancing, music making, and theatre at Fine Arts at
EarthTeach, the Park’s flagship youth camp. Evolving
into
EarthArt!
this wild and nature arts immersion day camp guided by
professional artists from the Northwest and wilderness
instructors from Coyote Trails School of Nature will offer
two week long sessions this year for children aged 7-13.
Another exceptional EarthTeach camp is
LEAP–the Leadership Edge-ucation Adventure Program.
Using the Challenge Ropes course, initiative games and the
rocks, boulders and wild terrain of the Park, LEAP focuses
on teens discovering and developing their leadership
“self."
Throughout the year the Park hosts initiation and
rite-of-passage experiences, including vision quests and
Native American sweat lodges, as well as the Celebrations
of Season and Cycle, outdoor observations of the Equinoxes,
solstices and cross-quarter Earth festival days that mark
the turning of the year. Many of these events at are
honored with spectacular bonfires and potluck dinners.
Last, but not least is EarthTeach's "crowned jewel," the
55’-diameter stone and gravel labyrinth, set in a
mountainside meadow at 4000-foot elevation. The
EarthTeach Labyrinth
was consecrated on the Summer Solstice of 1999 and has been
walked on by thousands of Park visitors since that time.
This ancient tool of meditation and introspection provides
for group and individual ceremony, celebration, insight,
instruction, and many a solace-seeking hiker has found it
be a unique place of peace and reflection.