By Abigail Ryan (Gonzaga University ‘20)

Excitement and chaos filled the air in the hills surrounding Marshall Creek on October 25 as 130 Cheney Middle School seventh graders gathered to plant trees in support of wetland restoration. This event was part of The Lands Council’s Project SUSTAIN, which is an outdoor environmental education program designed to restore the connection between youth and nature.

“I love being outdoors, I love getting my hands dirty and I love interacting with nature,” said Frank Schmidt, a seventh grader from Cheney Middle School. “It gives me a chance to get out of the stuffy, everyday stress of life.”

Project SUSTAIN gives students a break from the often dull, uninteresting classroom setting. The Lands Council partners with middle and high schools in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene regions to provide field trips that support in-class lessons about the science of our ecosystems. The outdoor field trips enable students to practice field science, be physically active and become responsible environmental stewards.

“How else are you really going to teach kids about how to restore ecosystems and recognize the importance of native plants versus invasive plants without them actually having the opportunity to be a part of that,” said Rebecca Hansen, a seventh grade teacher at Cheney Middle School. “There’s no way that I could reproduce that learning in the classroom.”