Utah High School Students Find Solutions to Land...

A Nature High Summer Camper makes friends with a butterfly. The BLM sponsored seven participants through a new partnership with Youth Discovery, Inc.

Partners representing nine federal and state agencies teamed up to teach 30 high school students about natural resources and inspire them to pursue higher education.

Campers enjoyed playing challenging team games that built camaraderie through problem-solving and teamwork.

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Utah High School Students Find Solutions to Land Management Problems

Nature High Summer Camp is a week-long camp held each summer at the Great Basin Environmental Education Center in the Manti/LaSal National Forest near Ephraim, Utah. Sponsored by eight state and federal agencies, the program engages high school students in land management activities, introduces them to future careers and teaches them to be responsible stewards of their public lands.

The students participate in daily field trips and meet with experts from a variety of backgrounds. They learn how scientific research drives the land use planning process and how professionals identify, collect, interpret, and use data. Agency experts talk to the students about the challenges their agencies face.

Students also gain hands-on experience in areas such as forest ecology, soil sampling, and stream flow measurement. During the camp, students apply the knowledge they’ve gained by evaluating actual local land management scenarios. The students are divided into teams representing different user groups and must find collaborative solutions to land management issues.

A variety of organizations make up the sponsoring partnership, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Utah Association of Conservation Districts, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Snow College, Utah State University Cooperative Extension, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Following the camp, many of the students attend college to pursue land management careers. Regardless of what path they choose, students report that the camp experience changed their outlook. Take, for example, the experience of one camper. Originally he had no plans after high school; now he wants to be a smokejumper!

Nature High Summer Camp is leveraging resources to reconnect youth with the great outdoors, ensuring our public lands are sustained in the future by the next generation of stewards.

BLM-Utah nominated this program for the Interior Secretary’s “Partners in Conservation” Awards. The Department will formally announce those selected to receive an award in January.