OFRI eNews: November 2020 |
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On Sunday, March 15, of this year, I placed a call to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute’s board chair, Tyler Freres, to discuss closing our offices and moving staff to telework due to the coronavirus pandemic. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that call initiated the first of many changes that touched every aspect of OFRI’s work for the remainder of our 2019-20 fiscal year.
In addition to closing our offices, we canceled our in-person education events to help keep our staff and those we serve safe. But rather than dwell on what we couldn’t do, OFRI staff quickly got to work and developed new ways to deliver our core programs.
In order to reach teachers, students and parents, OFRI staff created a new webpage with a library of downloadable education materials and lessons for at-home forest learning. We tapped our network of K-12 partners and teachers and proactively reached out to local TV news to get the word out about these resources. As a result, our K-12 website, LearnForests.org, saw a surge in traffic, averaging 1,500 downloads per month from April to June.
I am proud of the flexibility and creativity OFRI staff employed to ensure that we fulfilled our mission of advancing public understanding of Oregon’s forests, forest management and forest products during a pandemic.
For the forest,
Erin Isselmann
Executive Director
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Forest education persists amid pandemic |
OFRI overcame some unusual circumstances during its 2019-20 fiscal year as the Institute strived to achieve its mission of advancing public understanding of Oregon’s forests in the midst of a global pandemic. The newly released OFRI 2019-20 Annual Report details how each of its core programs successfully tackled pandemic-related obstacles to continue educating Oregonians about forests, forest management and forest products.
“Rising to the Challenge” is the theme of the new eight-page report summarizing OFRI’s accomplishments over the past year. This includes responding to the closure of schools and cancelation of in-person events due to COVID-19 by shifting the Institute’s K-12 and forest landowner education efforts to distance-learning formats.
The annual report touches on key achievements in 2019-20 across OFRI’s educational programs for forest landowners, the public, and K-12 teachers and students. Among the highlights were helping start the new Tree School Online webinar series for landowners, building a new webpage with educational resources for K-12 forest learning at home, and releasing an extensive science-based review of the effects of forest management on drinking water, in partnership with Oregon State University.
To learn more about OFRI’s work over the past year, read the full report:
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Forest lessons now available |
The OFRI K-12 education program is offering a new set of lessons students can complete, at home or in school, to enhance their understanding and appreciation of Oregon’s forests.
The lessons focus on four topics – wildlife habitats, adaptations, food webs and healthy forests – that are explored in the Oregon Garden Natural Resources Education Program. The OFRI-led field program for fourth- through sixth-grade students is normally held at the Rediscovery Forest inside The Oregon Garden in Silverton, but due to schools moving to distance learning earlier this year and other safety precautions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the on-site program is not currently accepting school groups. The lessons were developed so students who haven’t been able participate in the program can learn similar concepts in another setting.
Included with each set of lessons are instructions and background for educators and parents, so they can help guide students as they complete the four themed worksheets. This includes information about how the lessons connect to science and forest education standards.
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Fire program aiding landowners affected by fire |
The program, which OSU Extension established earlier this year, assists with implementing projects in parts of Oregon where reducing wildfire and forest health risks is a priority. It also provides education and outreach regarding wildfire and creating fire-resilient landscapes to all Oregonians.
In light of this year’s catastrophic Labor Day wildfires, the program offered a series of post-fire webinars this fall for landowners affected by those fires. All the webinars were recorded and are available to view online. The program also recently hired four regional wildfire specialists serving the Willamette Valley and southwest, central and southeast Oregon, who will assist forest and rangeland owners in those areas with improving the fire resiliency of their properties. The program plans to hire two more fire specialists to serve the coast and northeastern Oregon.
Other projects the program is involved in include prescribed fire education and training, and helping develop smoke-ready and fire-adapted communities.
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BLOG: "Private landowners and loggers help fight Labor Day fires"
The Labor Day fires of 2020 have been devastating to western Oregon. One bright spot has been the work of private citizens, including forest landowners and loggers who helped fight the fires alongside professional firefighters. In his latest blog post, OFRI Director of Forestry Mike Cloughesy details these efforts and explains why this is both a very sad and a very proud time in Oregon forestry. Read the blog.
BLOG: "Forest learning spreads far and wide"
Because forests are important in so many ways, it’s critical that K-12 students understand how they work and how we’re all connected to them ecologically, economically and socially. OFRI Director of K-12 Education Programs Norie Dimeo-Ediger describes in her latest blog the framework OFRI created to help educators teach about the importance of forests, a model that’s been used in places as far away as Tasmania. Read the blog.
Tree School Online continuing
The Tree School Online educational webinars, offered free to Oregon forest landowners and others interested in forestry, are scheduled to take place into mid-December. To see a schedule of upcoming webinars, and register to attend, go to KnowYourForest.org/TreeSchoolOnline.
Fire recovery aid available to landowners
Small woodland owners in 13 Oregon counties hit hard by wildfires have until the end of the year to submit applications to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Forest Restoration Program for grants to address wildfire damage. The counties where landowners are eligible to apply are Lake, Klamath, Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Lane, Linn, Marion, Clackamas, Washington, Lincoln, Tillamook and Wasco. Learn more.
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Oregon Forest Resources Institute |
The Oregon Legislature created the Oregon Forest Resources Institute in 1991 to advance public understanding of forests, forest management and forest products and to encourage sound forestry through landowner education.
A 13-member board of directors governs OFRI. It is funded by a portion of the forest products harvest tax.
Copyright © 2020, Oregon Forest Resources Institute. All Rights Reserved.
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