By Cambry Baker, Youth Engagement Coordinator
Every time we’ve gathered a fresh cohort of Youth for the Environment & People (YEP!) students over the last 7 years, it feels more and more special — this fall was no exception. I am awed that semester after semester, high schoolers from Whatcom and Skagit counties come together wanting to help their community and the land in a real, tangible way. I can feel the YEP! program gaining momentum and I can see YEP! alumni, environmental clubs, and high school classes weaving a network of youth activists. Another program, partly modeled after ours, popped up in Vancouver, WA this fall. And I hear of more emerging across our country each year. While it isn’t new that youth are on the forefront of change, it feels particularly exciting and rich to do this work at this moment.
So what does the work look like? In YEP!, we explored the topic of ecological forestry through field days, guest speakers, activities, and research. One Sunday, both cohorts joined together at River Farm in Deming to explore a mature forest, comparing and contrasting its ecological benefits and forest management with a nearby tree plantation clearcut. This experience led to reflections on how the mature forest not only offered birdsong, wildlife, cooler temperatures, and fresher smelling air, but it left students feeling more grounded and happier to be in.
As students learned, ecological forestry is a balanced form of forest management that restores and preserves forests’ vital ecosystem benefits while sustainably producing timber and providing long-term employment opportunities. Ecological foresters use tools such as thinning stands rather than clearcutting, protecting mature forests, and implementing longer forest rotations. One student put it well when reflecting on the complexity of forestry solutions: “I learned that even though I tend to view certain environmental issues as somewhat binary, there are a lot of interconnected factors that make them not as simple as just doing the right thing.”
While tucked away in the forest, Holly O’Neil, a local forest advocate, added to the complexity, facilitating a boisterous “stakeholder town hall meeting” where students played roles of forest workers, environmentalists, a school principal, a timber CEO, and more to try to find common ground solutions that benefited everyone involved. To round out the day, our Land and Water Policy Manager Kaia Hayes led students through an advocacy strategy activity which culminated in writing letters to Whatcom County Council in support of protecting mature forests.
Students continued to learn about forestry through guest speakers from Evergreen Land Trust, Skagit Conservation District, and RE Sources. The Whatcom cohort also participated in a climate emotions circle facilitated by two mental health professionals, Colleen Fisher and Elizabeth Kerwin, to get support and process their emotions around climate change.
As they learned more about ecological forestry and local advocacy, students began the real focus of YEP! — creating their own action project. They brainstormed their strengths, honed in on a specific focus within the theme of ecological forestry, and chose an advocacy tactic to use. The Whatcom and Skagit cohorts went in completely different directions, pursuing projects that reflected the students within those cohorts. That’s the student-led nature of YEP!
As they worked on their projects, students took turns being the leader of the day: outlining the agenda, facilitating the meeting, and keeping their peers focused and accountable to the task at hand. Through rotating leadership, each student gets a chance to step outside their comfort zones. As one student put it, “everyone in the group having to be a leader makes it better because we’re all nervous and will make mistakes”. In YEP, we focus on the process, valuing the development of tools students can use to take action long after they finish YEP! Our goal has always been to help the next generation of environmental leaders build the skills they’ll need for a lifetime of adapting to our changing world, and advocating for one that’s better.
I am so proud of our fall 2024 cohorts. Read about their accomplishments below!
Skagit cohort: Workshops for 6th graders
Six students from three high schools in Skagit County came together to plan their Ecological Forestry project. After learning from experts at Evergreen Land Trust, RE Sources, and the Skagit County Conservation District, they decided that their strengths as a group would be well suited to connecting with younger students. They reached out to Central Elementary school in Sedro-Woolley, and planned a lesson to help sixth graders learn about our forests and why they are important. After teaching a classroom lesson, they took the students outside to pot their own evergreen sapling, leaving instructions on how they could be planted in the spring, and how to care for local forests.
Whatcom cohort: Community letter-writing to county government supporting forest protection
Fifteen students gathered weekly to learn about Ecological Forest Management and the value of protecting mature forests. They learned that mounting funding pressures have caused some school districts like Mt. Baker School District to rely more heavily on state timber revenue. That revenue was intended to be “icing on the cake” by the 1920s-era program that’s still used to manage state lands today. This put some counties in the tough position of weighing their community’s academic opportunities against the climate resilience of the place these kids are growing up in.
The cohort wanted to go beyond raising awareness and sought to make systemic change. They decided on a project asking Whatcom County Council members to urge state officials to decouple school funding from timber sales in favor of a more stable, long-term source of revenue for schools that doesn’t come at the cost of students’ climate futures.
YEP! participant River Thut, a senior at Squalicum High School, summed up their project:
“In early December, a group of our YEP! members went to the Whatcom County Council to give public comments on behalf of the welfare of our mature forests. This was the second step in the Ecological Forestry Cohort’s advocacy plan, following our letter-writing workshop. On November 21st, we gathered a room full of people to put pens to paper and stamps to envelopes to use our voices for our environment. At the beginning of the event, three YEP! members gave a presentation to teach the attendees about the realities of forestry and how we can make a difference. Our main focus in this cohort was the decoupling of school funds from logging, and putting a pause on the sale of mature forests. Each person set to work, writing to our county council and holding them accountable for making policies that represent the interests of our county. In the end, more than 40 letters were mailed.”