Youths Trying to Save Trail Also Learn About Nature

Josh Farnsworth stood on a mountainside with snow blowing around him and the chill cutting through his coat. He reluctantly pulled off his mittens to write down the name of the 40-foot-high tree that towered in front of him.

“I think I’m going to call it ‘Three Splits,’ ” said the 9-year-old, as he scrutinized the maple, which had split at its base into three separate trunks. Then he measured the base with his scarf and paced off the distance from the tree to a trail marker 15 feet away.

Josh and others from Derby Elementary School in nearby Derby will use the information to solicit sponsors for dozens of trees along the 265-mile Long Trail, a hikers’ route from Massachusetts to Canada.

The Green Mountain Club will use the sponsors’ donations to buy some of the 67 miles of private land adjacent to the trail.

Preserving a Treasure

“The Long Trail is one of the treasures of Vermont. This is one of the few true wilderness experiences on the East Coast,” the children’s teacher, Doug Westin, said.

The project also is introducing dozens of fourth, fifth and sixth graders to a way of learning science, history and math, and a way of using their skills to help their community, he said.

The Long Trail program, which includes a pupil-produced history book about the trail, began in fall at a school that has earned a reputation for unusual, creative projects that often have an impact on this town of 4,200 people on the Vermont-Quebec border.

The school won an award from the American Assn. for State and Local History for last year’s project, a series of 109 short stories prepared and read on radio by pupils, and was honored recently as a finalist for the National Education Assn.’s A-Plus Award, Westin said.

The school projects begin in Westin’s “Challenge Room,” a classroom where he was told five years ago to establish a program for gifted children. But the program is “really open to anybody in the school who has a serious interest. It’s not just for kids with high IQs,” said Ed Hartman, guidance counselor.

Special Projects Schedule

A pupil participates for six weeks, three days a week, about 45 minutes each day. Some projects may involve entire classes, such as Josh’s. Earlier this month, he and his classmates boarded a bus for the half-hour trip to the Long Trail on Jay Peak.

Up on the trail, the youngsters fanned out to pick their trees. Rebecca Jenness, 10, sat in the snow in front of a gray birch with roots that loomed above the surface of the ground.

“What does it look like?” Westin asked.

“A troll’s house,” Rebecca answered.

“Oh, beautiful!” he said.

Rebecca said the project helps her to learn in a way that’s more enjoyable than just sitting at a desk.

“You learn about nature,” classmate Shannon Castl said.

Hartman said the projects help children develop an interest in the outdoors. “I don’t think it’s going to turn them all into environmentalists, and that’s not our goal, but I would like them to be at least as aware as they are of video games, or what’s going on in sports.”