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What is a School Forest?

A school forest is an outdoor classroom. Officially, a school forest is land owned or controlled by a public or private school and used for environmental education and natural resource management, which is registered through the state community forest program (see information on registration HERE).

  What is the Wisconsin School Forest Program?

  How are School Forests used?

  Example "value statements" from school forests around the state

What is the Wisconsin School Forest Program?

The school forest program serves as a resource for all school forests in the state. The program is coordinated by the Wisconsin School Forest Education Specialist, who is part of the LEAF program. The school forest program and the Wisconsin School Forest Education Specialist position are the result of a partnership between the Department of Natural Resources - Division of Forestry and the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education in the College of Natural Resources at UW-Stevens Point. The school forest program is part of the LEAF program.

How are school forests used?

School forests have incredible educational value. They are used to:

  • Meet state education standards - Education programs at school forests help to meet diverse state mandated education standards including science, language arts, math, social studies, environmental education, and agriculture education.

  • Integrate environmental education into the curriculum - Research has shown that using the environment as a theme across subject areas increases standardized test scores, improves attendance, and decreases behavior problems (Lieberman and Hoody 1998). Environmental education shouldn't be seen as another subject area, but as an approach that can help students learn across the curriculum. A school forest should be an extension of the classroom that is used to enhance learning through hands-on, experiential approaches that can't be accomplished in the school.

  • Connect teachers and students to place - As a counter to increasing attention focused on standardized and nationalized education and decreasing time spent outdoors by children, school forests can help re-localize education and connect students to their natural and human communities. We typically identify ourselves through our relationships - with family, friends, neighbors, the land, a community, etc. As Wendell Berry says, "If you don't know where you are, you don't know who you are." A sense of place is essential in creating relevancy in education as well as assuring that we strive to live well in our place.

  • Demonstrate sustainable natural resource management - The goal of sustainable natural resource management is to supply ecological, economic, and social benefits now and into the future. For most students, the school forest will provide the only opportunity to become involved in resource management. Ideally, students will play an integral role in the management of their school forest through developing management plans, implementing management activities (when practical), and utilizing forest products. School forests serve as the context for understanding how management decisions and their life-style choices are related.

  • Strengthen school and community relationships - School forests are a less formal setting for parents and community members to become involved in students' education. Recent research found that continuing involvement in outdoor education also "increased willingness of parents to come into school for events and meetings" (Peacock 2006).  Partnerships with businesses can be formed at the school forest by utilizing the knowledge and experience of local companies and potentially supplying these companies with products. The school forest can also serve as a community resource by hosting community education events, demonstrating sustainable natural resource management techniques, creating products for community use, and providing a recreation site.

  • Provide income - Forest products, non-timber forest products, and rental of facilities can generate income for the school. Ideally these funds would be invested in the school forest to maintain and support the program. There is also incredible opportunity to more fully utilize school forest products at a local level - enhancing income and the connection between the school forest and the community. For example, students could build bird houses or furniture from lumber harvested at the school forest and sell these products in the community.

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Example Value Statements from School Forests Around the State

Goals from the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School Forest:

  1. To create and implement a comprehensive, integrated environmental curriculum based on the Wisconsin Environmental Education State Standards.
  2. To create a nature center on the Wittenberg-Birnamwood Hi-Wood School Forest site to allow for classroom based activities for all students.
  3. To promote environmental awareness and cooperation in the schools and community.
  4. Provide families and community members with an opportunity to explore silent outdoor recreational opportunities.
  5. Maintain an on-going environmental committee to address curricular and nature center issues.

Mission Statement from the Rahr Memorial Forest (Manitowoc):

"The Rahr Memorial School Forest serves as a multiple use natural school and community resource, providing opportunities for people to develop awareness and appreciation so that students might become well-informed, responsible decision makers regarding the environment."

Core Beliefs from the Wausau and Merrill School Forests:

"We believe that:

  • Environmental education should be infused into all subjects.
    Students should be instilled with an increasing awareness, knowledge, attitude, value, and participation (citizen action skills) for the environment.
  • Learning is provided through direct hands-on experiences.
  • Planned experiences and teachable moments are part of an environmental education program.
  • Problem solving and other critical thinking skills are developed in an environmental education experience.
  • Each student will have opportunities to be challenged to grow and to develop, and to achieve.
  • Environmental education should be a continuous lifelong process, beginning at the preschool level and continuing through all stages of a person's life."

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