Blog

I take Wild Child students for a walk on Turtle Island because it provides easy access to a good variety of trees and shrubs that are common in the gorges. We’ve found at least 15 tree species, and I could talk about plants all day, but I know the attention span of the typical fourth grade class, so we walk and talk. I challenge them to find deer poop along the way. I tell them to avoid the greenbrier. I remind them to follow me, and I’ll clear the Joro spider webs from the path. Some of the students are ready to race up the hill, and some of them are struggling to keep up. We wait and listen; do you know what bird that is? We nibble a sourwood leaf. What do you taste? At the top of the hill, we gather. We started climbing from the shore, and we have achieved no more than 100 feet of elevation gain and traveled no more than 1,000 yards. Nonetheless, we have a beautiful view of the valley below, and the mountains to the north. It’s a simple thing, getting to the top, but we did it together. ~ Steve Lewis, JLT Naturalist guide and JWC Educator