The most unique and by far the largest classroom to re-open in the Ukiah Unified School District for in-person learning has no chairs, no walls, no ringing bells, no dry erase markers, and no overhead projectors.  Instead, it has finch nests, native oak trees, meandering trails, and a river with baby salmon.  And its teachers are named “Bobcat” and “Mother West Wind.”

On Monday, April 12th, this 45 acre outdoor classroom, officially named the Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Project (RVOEP), re-opened its trees and trails to students for the first time since March of 2020.

Erich Sommer, aka “Bobcat,” the RVOEP’s Outdoor Education Specialist, had been restlessly awaiting the first day of outdoor education school for a long while.

“It’s a special thing to have acres and acres of mixed oak woodland to use for outdoor education,” says Sommer.  “During COVID, I was there day in and day out keeping up the site.  I got to know every individual bird nest and many individual trees.  But as the shutdown wore on, it started to feel like an empty home that needed kids in it.  And now the kids are back in the home, and it’s magical.”

The first class to return to RVOEP, serendipitously, was taught by the teacher who brought the last class to visit over a year ago, Mrs. Katelyn Davis from Calpella Elementary School.  She brought the final class on March 16th, 2020, the last day of in-person learning for Ukiah Unified.

“On March 16th, there was great uncertainty about what the future would look like, but my principal, Mrs. Burrell, encouraged me to go for it,” says Davis.

“When I heard we would get to go to the first day of re-opening at outdoor ed. I was so excited.  The looks on the kids’ faces were amazing as they took it all in.  We were all a bit nervous at first, but we took a deep breath and learned and explored and had a great time.”

“I love Bobcat’s passion for being out in nature and how he imparts his knowledge of local trees and animals to kids.  He inspires kids to get out into nature,” Davis adds.

A lot of work has been done during the past year by both Sommer and Maureen Taylor, the RVOEP Education Coordinator, to prepare the site for re-opening.  One of the top projects was coordinating with CAL FIRE to reduce fuel load on the land for fire safety.

Before re-opening, Taylor has zoomed into classrooms to teach virtual lessons on pollination, decomposition, bird habitat, methods of scientific research, and insect life cycles. Students affectionately know Taylor by her nature name, “Mother West Wind.”

As students visit the site, they are reminded to practice health safety measures. They have the opportunity to learn about identifying birds from sight and sound and study avian migration through interactive but socially distant trail games.

One of the first classes to visit was a class that will remain on distance learning the entire year.  “Students from this class were very nervous at first,” says Taylor, “since it was literally their first day physically at a school, but it didn’t take too long for them to become at ease and start to socialize.  By the end of the trip, they were eager to share about their experience and observations.”

“Right now at outdoor ed. overall, we are focusing on the wonderment of outdoors,” shares Sommer.  “It’s a special time observing all of the resident birds nesting and migratory birds coming back.  The birds are energetic, and we can just sit and watch finch nests being built above our heads.”

Ms. Shalyn’s nature club from Eagle Peak Middle School is taking afternoon field trips to the site to release Steelhead as part of a decades-old program supported by the Sonoma County Water Agency.  Students observe and learn about the growth of the fish from their eggs to the “fry” stage that occurs shortly after hatching.  Students release the young fish into the west fork of the Russian River, where they eventually make their way to the sea.  While it is becoming rarer, larger Steelhead are still observed in the river that runs along the RVOEP site.

After a year of learning through a screen, the opening of the Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Project has provided students vivid, natural, and non-virtual learning experiences using pure human senses. “We needed this so much,” summed up one teacher.