A Special Field Trip
I'm stoked about what looks like it's shaping up to be a very good thing. At school we're in the last week of the first quarter. As an incentive for timeliness and diligence in staying on track toward graduation with our school's individualized curriculum, we offer an all-day field trip for everyone who ends the quarter on privilege--meaning they're getting a satisfactory amount of work done. This quarter, for the first time in a very long time, it looks like every student is on track to go on the field trip. That's a real credit to the students who have done lots of hard work.
Besides the fun of all going together, I think it will be a very special trip because the destination is a national treasure. We're headed to Strong City, about two hours away, which is farther than we've ever gone before on a field trip, I believe. We deliberated a long time before we decided to go for it. The attraction there is the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve--the only tallgrass prairie area in the national park system. It is, furthermore, in one of the last unplowed areas of tallgrass prairie, a "sea" that once stretched from Canada to Texas, and Indiana to Kansas. The rock underlying the Flint Hills in east central Kansas protected these grasslands from the plow.
I find the story of the park's establishment inspiring. A local Hutchinson rancher, Doug Wildin, had the original vision for this park, and worked hard to make it happen. Bob Dole, the influential Kansas senator and one-time presidential candidate, used his considerable clout to move the project along. All that has happened before, of course, in various pork barrel projects that are inspiring only to those who profit from them financially.
But this one is different because the park is actually owned and managed by three different entities, some of them public and others private. The website for the park states "It is a unique private/public partnership between the National Park Service (the primary land manager), The Nature Conservancy (the primary landowner), and the Kansas Park Trust (cooperating bookstore and promotion)." The National Park Service owns a little more than 30 acres that includes a set of historic farm buildings built from locally quarried limestone. But most of the nearly 11,000 acres was purchased and is owned by the Nature Conservancy.
I remember from news accounts around the time that the park was established in 1996 that the Nature Conservancy was allowing ranchers to continue grazing their cattle on the range they had utilized for a long time. Wisely, they did not immediately displace the people and animals that had worked together to keep the prairie healthy for centuries.
Before the buffalo were slaughtered into oblivion, they crossed the prairies regularly, grazing primarily on the abundant grasses. Cattle prefer forbs, and when the buffalo were gone, they took over the grazing duties. Together, these large grazers keep the plant community well-balanced, under the care of a wise rancher who exercises vigilance to avoid letting animals overgraze the available forage. A small buffalo herd has recently been re-introduced to the tallgrass preserve.
This is the optimum time of year for seeing the beauty of the grasses. The green hills are beautiful in the spring and summer, but not until fall do they take on plumes and tufts and burnished hues from purple through bronze and orange and even gold to startling white. And in the park the grasses are safe from the over-zealous county mowing crews that are such a bane to my aesthetic sensibilities.
If we could somehow afford to rent a bus and driver from Durham Bus (or school?) Services, so that everyone could travel in the same vehicle on this field trip, I think things would be as nearly perfect as they could get. The students deserve a reward, and that would be a really fun thing to do for them. I'm praying about this.
On the first day of school, I urged our students to "do hard things" this year, and specifically mentioned one goal I hoped we could all help each other accomplish--everyone going on every field trip this year. It had happened once before in my memory, when Andrew was here and we had a smaller school. I believed it would be possible again, and I'm so grateful to all those who resisted the urge to contradict me.
So now you know why this field trip prospect makes me extraordinarily happy. I love the prairie, I love the students, and I love seeing them being willing to do hard things. God bless us all (and give us a bus for the trip--please?).
Besides the fun of all going together, I think it will be a very special trip because the destination is a national treasure. We're headed to Strong City, about two hours away, which is farther than we've ever gone before on a field trip, I believe. We deliberated a long time before we decided to go for it. The attraction there is the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve--the only tallgrass prairie area in the national park system. It is, furthermore, in one of the last unplowed areas of tallgrass prairie, a "sea" that once stretched from Canada to Texas, and Indiana to Kansas. The rock underlying the Flint Hills in east central Kansas protected these grasslands from the plow.
I find the story of the park's establishment inspiring. A local Hutchinson rancher, Doug Wildin, had the original vision for this park, and worked hard to make it happen. Bob Dole, the influential Kansas senator and one-time presidential candidate, used his considerable clout to move the project along. All that has happened before, of course, in various pork barrel projects that are inspiring only to those who profit from them financially.
But this one is different because the park is actually owned and managed by three different entities, some of them public and others private. The website for the park states "It is a unique private/public partnership between the National Park Service (the primary land manager), The Nature Conservancy (the primary landowner), and the Kansas Park Trust (cooperating bookstore and promotion)." The National Park Service owns a little more than 30 acres that includes a set of historic farm buildings built from locally quarried limestone. But most of the nearly 11,000 acres was purchased and is owned by the Nature Conservancy.
I remember from news accounts around the time that the park was established in 1996 that the Nature Conservancy was allowing ranchers to continue grazing their cattle on the range they had utilized for a long time. Wisely, they did not immediately displace the people and animals that had worked together to keep the prairie healthy for centuries.
Before the buffalo were slaughtered into oblivion, they crossed the prairies regularly, grazing primarily on the abundant grasses. Cattle prefer forbs, and when the buffalo were gone, they took over the grazing duties. Together, these large grazers keep the plant community well-balanced, under the care of a wise rancher who exercises vigilance to avoid letting animals overgraze the available forage. A small buffalo herd has recently been re-introduced to the tallgrass preserve.
This is the optimum time of year for seeing the beauty of the grasses. The green hills are beautiful in the spring and summer, but not until fall do they take on plumes and tufts and burnished hues from purple through bronze and orange and even gold to startling white. And in the park the grasses are safe from the over-zealous county mowing crews that are such a bane to my aesthetic sensibilities.
If we could somehow afford to rent a bus and driver from Durham Bus (or school?) Services, so that everyone could travel in the same vehicle on this field trip, I think things would be as nearly perfect as they could get. The students deserve a reward, and that would be a really fun thing to do for them. I'm praying about this.
On the first day of school, I urged our students to "do hard things" this year, and specifically mentioned one goal I hoped we could all help each other accomplish--everyone going on every field trip this year. It had happened once before in my memory, when Andrew was here and we had a smaller school. I believed it would be possible again, and I'm so grateful to all those who resisted the urge to contradict me.
So now you know why this field trip prospect makes me extraordinarily happy. I love the prairie, I love the students, and I love seeing them being willing to do hard things. God bless us all (and give us a bus for the trip--please?).
posted by Mrs. I at
6:56 PM
3 Comments:
Bill and I were there once. It is a delightful place. Maybe a church bus would be more feasible. You, of course, would need someone with a CDL license.
By
Dorcas Byler, at 10/13/2010
I am excited esp. with all the road time .I think it will be lots of fun.Vans filled with hyperactive teanagers are epic bonding places ;)
By
Anonymous, at 10/14/2010
Way to go students! Mine are fairly motivated this year too.
Mrs. I, my high school students are writing biographies and I wondered if you had any tips. When I was in Kansas a few years ago, I picked up a little biography written, I think, by one of your students. My email is dbh @ pcs.pilgrimfellowship.org
By
Unknown, at 10/17/2010
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