Notes From The Field: Wildland Firefighter Project

On June 14th, 2008 the lives of five high school students were sparked alight as they set out on the week-long Wildland Firefighter Project offered by the Cottonwood Institute.  Led by two amazing people, Steve McCue and co-guide Megan Hurley, the adventurous group based themselves just outside of Buena Vista, CO, and set about experiencing the wild ways of the outdoors. The days were spent learning wilderness survival skills and how to minimize their footprint while camping. Star-filled nights inspired the group to philosophize around the campfire as they made coal-burned bowls.

Working with instructors from the Colorado Firecamp, the students learned about wildfire behavior and fire ecology and practiced wildland firefighter techniques. Students practiced using a fire hose, learned about prescribed burns, wildland firefighting equipment, and practiced setting up emergency fire shelters, which are used by firefighters as a last resort for survival if they are being run down by a wildfire. By the end of this course, the students had used their newly acquired wildfire skills in undertaking an Action Project to minimize the fire danger of the Upper Arkansas Valley.  Way to go!

From a parent of one of the course participants…

“I wanted to thank you for the opportunity the Cottonwood Institute provided my son. The experience he had on the Wildland Firefighter Course was truly a life changing experience for him. He was noticeably different from the moment I picked him up from his course. In particular the influence of his Instructor was vital to his growth and change. His Instructor became an inspiring role model whom my son has referenced and quoted many, many times. As a single mom, I need for my son to get just this kind of positive influence, which I cannot offer. My son’s entire experience with his course was initiatory and transformative. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
- Anrahya Arsted, Parent of Wildland Firefighter Student Damien Mayo, Griffith Scholarship Fund recipient.

Check out the Wildland Firefighter Project video with clips from the course edited by our new marketing intern, Jacob Rothbaum.

If you are interested in other courses the Cottonwood Institute is offering this summer, please CLICK HERE.

Last Chance to Receive Sold Out Jack Johnson Tickets!

Breaking news from the Cottonwood Institute: Jack Johnson is performing live at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on August 17th and it’s completely SOLD OUT, right?  Right…well, technically. 

The Cottonwood Institute received a donation of TWO GREAT TICKETS to this very show and YOU have the chance to make them YOURS.  They will be auctioned off to the highest bidder and all of the proceeds benefit the Cottonwood Institute’s Griffith Scholarship Fund.  The tickets were donated by Jack Johnson, the All at Once Community and his Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation who have pledged to match what the Cottonwood Institute raises up to $2,500—absolutely fantastic!

Alright, now pay close attention:   

The online auction begins today, July 24th, at 7:00 p.m. and will accept bids until Sunday, August 3rd.   This is a great opportunity to see an amazing musician at one of the country’s best music venues as well as support the Cottonwood Institute.  Bid Now to secure your tickets to the SOLD OUT show!   

Eating Ecologically

One of the core programs at the Cottonwood Institute is called the Community Adventure Program (CAP). CAP is a class offered to public high schools students, which combines outdoor survival skills with environmental awareness and education. Throughout the class, students design an Action Project to address an environmental issue that is affecting their local community.

Issue: This past quarter at New Vista High School students chose to focus their Action Project on the environmental impact of the food industry. They set the intention to spread awareness about the benefits of buying local and organic foods and how this can reduce our environmental footprint.

After spending time researching what it takes for a business to become eco-friendly or “green,” students decided to interview restaurants around Boulder about their ecological practices. The students asked questions such as, what percent of the restaurant’s food is local and organic, where their meat and seafood comes from, and what the business is doing to reduce their waste and energy consumption. In addition, the students spent three days volunteering at Growing Gardens and Abbondanza Organic Seeds and Produce in Boulder to experience how their food is grown and cultivated. In exchange for their volunteer efforts, students received organic seeds to grow their own organic gardens at home.

“My favorite part of the action project was the time that we spent volunteering on the local farms. I enjoyed that it gave us the opportunity to be outside in the sun working with a tangible aspect of our project. I also felt that it taught us the most valuable lesson that we could have learned from this project - in order to successfully eat ecologically, we must reconnect with our ‘roots’ and know where our food comes from.” Olivia Gray, Community Adventure Program Student.

Impact: Students created a brochure for the local restaurants they interviewed that outlined why it is important to buy local and organic food, easy things they can do to become more ecologically friendly and various resources and suppliers of organic food in the area. The students also created a second brochure to organize all the data they collected from the restaurants, and show what these businesses are already doing to become more green. Students were also featured in the Boulder Daily Camera in an article called, “Students Get Dirty in Lafayette Learning about Locally Grown Food.” It’s refreshing to see positive stories about how students are taking action to change their communities!

Change The World Movie Night: The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

Come join the Cottonwood Institute for a screening of the documentary, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, this Thursday, July 14th, 2008 at 6:30pm at the Fluid Coffee Bar in Denver. The movie is free and will be followed by a discussion of the film and how we can take action to help change the world!

New Interns Storm the Cottonwood Institute

Several new sets of helping-hands have joined the Cottonwood Institute as interns.  In the future, you will be seeing their work around this blog and beyond.  Our new Cottonwood Institute Blog interns, Cailin and Misra, will be contributing steady updates about Cottonwood Institute courses, news and other juicy bits. It is their hope to offer some windows of perspective into relevant current events and aspects of daily life, which will hopefully get our readers thinking about their impact on their communities and the environment.  Feedback is always appreciated and if you happen across any articles or happenings in the world you believe others would appreciate reading about — let us know!

Misra Cohen-Macgill is a 2007 graduate of New Vista High School in Boulder, CO where she completed two winter camping Community Adventure Program (CAP) courses.  In any season, any country, Misra loves spending as much time as she can outside.  She is an artist, great sushi chef, world traveler and is looking forward to the greater awareness and perspective she expects to gain through this internship by seeking out material to share on this blog.

Cailin Marsden (New Vista High School ’07) has also participated in a winter CAP course–the first one ever offered–ever.   Glad to be active in the Cottonwood Institute community, Cailin will be posting while commencing her first year at Marlboro College in Vermont.  She loves backpacking, rafting through the canyons of the Southwest desert country and jumps at every opportunity to travel abroad. This past year, she and Misra took a gap year between high school and their post-secondary endeavors during which they traveled through Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and New Zealand for 5 1/2 months. To check out their travel blog Click Here.

Our new marketing intern, Jacob Rothbaum, is currently a student at the University of Denver.  He is attending the Daniels College of Business and his major is marketing.  Jacob was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri and has lived in Colorado for the past three years.  His family has always been active outdoors and they often vacationed in Colorado during the summer.  Jacob has always been a hiker and a camper and is excited to be working for a company like the Cottonwood Institute.