"The Vision is Green"

Sarah Jo Lambert, a 15 year old girl from Lubbock, Texas, is working towards her Gold Medal Award in Girl Scouts through her project "The Vision is Green".  Her vision is to build green environmental center at the Rio Blanco Girl Scout camp in Crosbyton, Texas.  The center will be a place that students from the Texas South Plains can come to learn about environmental issues and ways that they can be more environmentally friendly.  Sarah has been working on this project since last fall and she hopes to have the building complete by this May.  Through her project, Sarah has brought her community together and has inspired girls all over the country to realize that one seedling of an idea, when given proper care and attention, can blossom into a garden for future generations to enjoy!

To help Sarah kick off the building of the environmental center, we traveled to Lubbock to provide a workshop on Leave No Trace and the PEAK program.  Sarah was awarded the "Packing With PEAK" grant and will be using the PEAK pack as a basis for the educational curriculum as well as an interpretive trail guide at the environmental center. Sarah hopes to encourage young children to start thinking about ways that they can help take care of our planet and make a difference for the future.  To learn more about Sarah's project, visit her website at www.visionisgreen.org! 

A special thanks goes out to the Lambert family for their warmth and hospitality!!!

Safe travels...Kate and Tracy

AEE Trainer Course

We were a part of the Association of Experiential Education Conference over the past week in Albuquerque, NM.  The conference provides quality professional development workshops, networking, and other resources for teachers, college professors, students, group and challenge course facilitators, counselors, outdoor and camp professionals, program administrators, and environmental educators.  As part of the conference, we offered a trainer course that was held at Bear Canyon, which is owned by Albuquerque Academy.  

The course went extremely well.  We had 8 participants from a variety of backgrounds including the New Mexico Audubon Society, GOES (a new youth program in Western CO), WinGate Wilderness Therapy, and local public schools.  The diversity of the participants made for great discussions that focused on protecting our public lands and making a spiritual connection to nature.  One participant played a Native American flute for the group as part of her presentation on Minimize Campfire Impacts.  She gave the group goosebumps as she showed her passion for the spirit of the outdoors.  We were reminded the importance of making a connection to the outdoors and developing a sense of pride in caring for the special places we love to visit.  Thank you to all the participants for sharing so many wonderful and inspiring stories!

We are wrapping up our time in New Mexico, then it is off to Texas!  Yee-ha!

Safe travels...Kate and Tracy

The Sunshine State

We recently had the chance to stop in at a few places in sunny Florida. First, we hit up a Powderhorn scouting event near Paisely , FL, where the armadillo above was kind enough to pose for a few pictures. Afterwards, we headed down to Orlando for the American Camping Association National Conference. At the conference we spent some time chatting with folks about how the PEAK Program can be easily implemented into their curriculum.

Fun at Tent Rocks

The Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico is amazing!  Hiking this area gives you a chance to see the unique geological formations known as tent rocks.  If you do this hike, you also go through unbelievable slot canyons and up onto the mesa, leading to great views of the Sangre de Cristo and Jemez mountains.  We would highly recommend this hike to anyone looking for a mild to moderate climb.  New Mexico has a lot of natural areas to explore and the locals are more than willing to share their favorite gems with us as we pass through the 'Land of Enchantment'.  

Safe travels...Kate and Tracy

Winter Wonderland

 

This weekend was a fun filled winter sports extravaganza!

On Saturday, we were part of Winter Trails Day in Estes Park, Colorado. This event, now in its fourteenth year, offers entire families or groups of friends, regardless of age, an opportunity to get outside in the winter and enjoy a day of snowshoeing or cross country skiing. Many visitors were excited to chat about Leave No Trace before they hit the trails. Although deep snow is a durable surface, it is important to think about our impacts on winter terrain. Wildlife impacts were a common topic of conversation throughout the day. Winter is a great season for wildlife viewing. Chances are parks will be less populated, which lends itself to observing many different species. If you are lucky enough to encounter wildlife, enjoy them from a distance. Be careful not to feed, follow, or chase animals so that you can truly experience them in their natural habitat.

Part two of our extravaganza was spent at Arapahoe Basin for the Subaru Master the Mountain event. This was a great opportunity to work the folks at Subaru that generously sponsor our Traveling Trainer program. This event, celebrating its fourteenth season, is a series of winter events held at beautiful resorts across the country. There are plenty of FREE ski and snowboarding lessons, as well as demos of sports equipment. The Subaru crew will be making plenty of stops throughout the rest of this winter. Check out the website, www.subaru.com, to see if they will be visiting your favorite mountain resort. A huge thank-you goes out to Subaru for enabling TEN years of Education in Motion.

We are off to New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment!

Safe Travels……..Kate and Tracy

Wilderness Education Association National Conference on Outdoor Leadership

Well, we made our way back to the midwest just in time for the Wilderness Education Association National Conference on Outdoor Leadership. Many outdoor leaders from around the country came to Bloomington Indiana to take part in the conference. We were lucky enough to bump into many old friends at the event as well as some new ones. Hugh Gibson (MO State Advocate), Jerel Cowan (OK State Advocate), and Jennifer Hazelrigs (AR State Advocate) were all the conference. It was a great chance for us to meet with our friends and partners at the WEA like Mary Williams and to meet with some of State Advocates.

New Natural Area in Colorado to open this June!

 

On Wednesday we were invited to the city of Fort Collins, CO to present an awareness workshop to volunteers and Master Naturalist from the local parks.  This was a great opportunity to work with one of our partners, the city of Fort Collins, as they are getting ready to open a new natural area this June.  We were happy to be joined by Dave Winter, Outreach Manager for the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.  Dave presented the Authority of the Resource Technique, a concept originally developed by Fort Collins' own George Wallace.  Authority of the Resource Technique (ART) is a non-confrontational technique used to approach people in the outdoors that may be engaged in a "less than Leave No Trace" behavior.  

A special thanks goes out to Zoe Whyman, Community Relations Manager for the city of Fort Collins Natural Areas, for hosting this event and making sure we were all well fed!    Good luck with the opening of Sunstone Prairie and we will be looking forward to visiting the area when we return to Colorado this summer.

Safe Travels...Kate and Tracy

On the road again...

Greetings from Team West, the newest Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer Team, Kate Bullock and Tracy Howard. Some of you may recognize us, as we were the 2008 Leave No Trace E-tour team sponsored by Coleman Outdoor Product.

Excitement is in the air as we got this season off to a rip roarin’ start with two very successful events this week. To get us “into the mood,” we mingled with the Camping Singles crew from the Denver, CO area. The Camping Singles is a group of Colorado single adults who enjoy camping, fishing, hiking, swimming, biking, sightseeing, photography, the camaraderie of others, starry nights around the camp fire, memorable pot lucks, boating, rafting, hot springs, hay rides, etc.

Next stop…Adams State College in Alamosa, CO. Nestled in the San Luis Valley, the Adventure Program welcomed us with open arms. We worked with a group of student and staff leaders that organize outdoor trips. As a Connect Grant recipient, Adams State is working towards providing outreach to local youth serving organizations in southern Colorado. A special thanks goes out to Mick Daniels for his hospitality and efforts to spread awareness of Leave No Trace.

Stay tuned to see where the road takes Team West!

Safe Travels…Kate and Tracy

The Outdoor Retailer Winter Market

We hit the road for our first event of the 2009 Subaru / Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer Season. The Outdoor Retailer Winter Market is a very successful event for Leave No Trace and the Traveling Trainer program. At the show we have the opportunity to talk with hundreds of outdoor gear retailers and manufacturers. It is a great time for us to continue to promote Leave No Trace skills and ethics to professionals in the outdoor recreation world and to receive some Traveling Trainer invitations for the new year.

The highlight of the show is usually the Great Gear Giveaway that Subaru and Backpacker sponsor and Leave No Trace hosts. Over three days we test attendee's Leave No Trace knowledge and then reward them a chance to win some sweet gear packages from companies that have donated the gear. For all of you that attended the Winter show, we will see you in the summer where we will celebrating 10 Years of Education in Motion.

Rocky Mountain Snowshoeing

Before hitting the road for 10 plus months of Traveling and Training, we took advantage of Boulder's access to Rocky Mountain National Park. We headed into the foothills from Boulder and about 40 miles later found ourselves in Estes Park, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. After entering the park we took Bear Lake Road up to the very popular Bear Lake Nature Trail. A short .6 mile hike around Bear Lake and then we continued on up to Nymph Lake, about .5 miles from the Bear Lake trailhead. You can actually hike on up to two more lakes, Dream Lake and then Emerald Lake, but allow yourself plenty of time in the winter. Hitting this trail in the middle of the week is ideal as it tends to draw quite the crowd on the weekends.