Our noxious weeds Conservation Field School focused on learning how to identify noxious weeds, how to manage them, and about three different programs that aim to get students involved in habitat conservation: Biocontrol, Kids in Action, and Pull Your Share.
DETAILS
Dates: July 27-28, 2023 (10 AM July 27 to 3PM July 28)
15 MT OPI Renewal Units
Cost: $60
Rustic lodging and meals provided
At Jack Creek Preserve’s Outdoor Education Center
COURSE INFORMATION AND OBJECTIVES
Through class presentations, discussions, and activities specializing in noxious weeds and their management, the three programs focused on the following objectives:
WHITEHALL BIOLOGICAL WEED CONTROL PROJECT:
Noxious weed identification and state designation.
Biocontrols and their use.
How to easily incorporate noxious weed education into your classroom/curriculum.
Whack some weeds with your students!
Get Kids Outdoors with Scientists!
Help Teachers engage their students outdoors with scientists (curriculum, experiential learning, hands-on in the classroom and in the field).
Give Kids the opportunity to be part of the conservation in special places like Jack Creek Preserve.
How to provide an in-classroom lesson on spotted knapweed.
How to start a Pull Your Share educational weed pull.
How to utilize resources found on the Pull Your Share website.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
Todd Breitenfeldt is a retired 30+ year science teacher from Whitehall. “Teacher of kids, herder of bugs, annihilator of weeds”. He has coordinated the Whitehall Biological Weed Control Project involving teachers and students, since 1993. The Whitehall Project educates folks about these nasty noxious weeds and how to control them. He also mass rears, collects, and distributes awesome weed munching insect bio-agents throughout Montana to all landowners that want them. Todd has a BS in Forestry from U of M, Missoula ‘79, Teaching Certificate 6-12 Science WMC Dillon ‘82, MS Entomology MSU Bozeman ‘95, and his thesis focused an insect bio-agent of the noxious weed Dalmatian toadflax. He is the co-author of Field Guide for the Biological Control of Weeds in Montana, 1st & 2nd Ed. 2011 & 2022. He has taught numerous classes/workshops to all ages, teachers and land managers about noxious weeds and biological weed control.
Todd’s Goal: All our fine Montana students should have a basic understanding of invasive species and how to control them. ‘Just as they should know about our wonderful indigenous peoples!’. I really enjoy showing teachers how to jazz-up their curriculum by inserting biological weed control and noxious weeds WITHOUT adding extra work!! If you are having fun in your classroom, so are your students…
Carla Hoopes coordinates the engagement of kids and scientists/teachers component of Intermedia Productions: Kids In Action Project. She is a Wildlife Biologist and Master of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences leading Intermedia’s KIDS IN ACTION INITIATIVE. The Kids In Action Initiative Steering Committee and Technical Team is made up of Federal and State land management agencies, natural area and preserve land managers, Teachers, entomologists, invasive species researchers, and biological control scientists. Prior to bringing Kids In Action activities to Jack Creek Preserve in Montana, she developed and piloted the Kids In Action program in Utah with USDA Forest Service, Utah Wildlife Resources, Utah State Parks; and in Chicago, Illinois with the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Institute of North America’s Pest Defense for Healthy Schools Program.
Dan Wilkins has been a Montana high school educator for 32 years, most of those years teaching at Great Falls High School. In 2006, Dan and his wife, Diane, purchased a small ranch near Belt, Montana that was heavily infested with Leafy Spurge. Dan gained an intense interest in learning about and combating noxious weeds. Over a 10 year period using rest rotation grazing techniques, bio control, and chemical spraying, he significantly reduced the leafy spurge. Through hand pulling, he was able to keep spotted knapweed from infesting their ranch.
In 2017, Dan wanted to get students actively involved in combating noxious weeds in Montana. Working with the U.S. Forest Service, the Cascade County Weed Division, the Cascade County Conservation District, and other conservation groups, he started high school Pull Your Share educational weed pulls in Sun River Canyon near Augusta. The knapweed at several campsites and trailheads has been reduced significantly. The team utilizes an integrated pest management approach that incorporates student weed pulls. Interest in the Pull Your Share project has been increasing. High school students in several locations in Montana are participating in Pull Your Share weed pulls. Dan hopes the project will grow statewide.
