This April, King Conservation District partnered with the cities of SeaTac and Burien to lead a two-week long forest stewardship program for local middle school students. Students in this program explored the value of urban forests, gained experience with natural stewardship principles, and helped restore sections of Angle Lake Park in SeaTac. Twelve youth stewards, many of whom were new to exploring their local green spaces, were trained on several restoration practices like removing nonnative blackberry at the root.
An important aspect of this program was to help students build the resilience that comes from connecting with the outdoors. In addition to getting their hands dirty by practicing restoration, this cohort of young stewards connected with each other and to the landscape by learning about topics like soil health. They were also taught to identify various local plants and certain plants’ traditional uses. Students learned to make tea from plants like cedar and to forage for traditional food sources like Big Leaf Maple blossoms. A couple of students even got a chance to flex their creativity by practicing outdoor photography with KCD’s photographer. Best of all for the students, is they were paid for their participation in this program!
The youth who participated in this program have made lasting improvements to their local green spaces, increasing their cities’ tree canopy, and creating space for native plants and people to thrive. These students’ restoration efforts in spaces like Angle Lake Park will continue to benefit their community by improving access to nature there. We hope the lessons they take from KCD’s youth forest stewardship program continue to inspire these students to connect to their local green spaces and to steward the nature in their backyards.
Here are a few of the winning shots taken by SeaTac’s Youth Urban Forest Stewards, part of KCD’s Urban Forestry Program. On one of the afternoons during this spring program, a handful of these youth stewards got a chance to explore their photography skills with KCD’s Communications Coordinators. On top of showing their promise as future conservation leaders, some of the students showed a real knack for photography! Check out some of the portraits they took of each other.
As KCD’s Communications Coordinator, I hope these young stewards continue to explore their talent for visual storytelling by continuing to connect with the outdoors.
