Four Corners School Of Outdoor Education Inc

Programs: Bioregional outdoor education project (boep): the long-term goal of boep is to educate a generation of teachers and students about the colorado plateau bioregion and its natural processes through outdoor, place-based,hands-on learning. Boep is doing this by creating permanent science/math/language/culture outdoor education programs in all k8 schools on the colorado plateau. Boep offers a yearlong set of opportunities for teachers (2 years per school) to engage in learning that will improve their understanding of science/math/ language/culture content and teaching skills. From july 2013 to june 30, 2014 boep worked with 11 schools in total: 2 in utah at montezuma creek elementary in montezuma creek, ut, lake powell school at bullfrog, ut; 2 in colorado at ignacio elementary school and southern ute indian montessori academy, in ignacio, co along with southern ute education center and 2 of their roving teachers; 3 in new mexico at ojo amarillo in farmington, nm, mosaic school in aztec, and mesa verde school in farmington nm; and 3 in flagstaff, az at flattstaff junior academy elementary and middle school and eval marshall magnet elementary school. The teacher break down by state is 3 az schools/6 teachers, 3 nm schools/6 teachers, 2 ut schools/2 teachers, 2 co schools and the ute ed center/5 teachers. This is equal to 11 schools total and 19 teachers, plus 206 more teachers were emntored and 1,073 students were impacted. Teachers in az, co, ut, and nm were a mix of native and non-native teachers with a primarily navajo and ute student population, in schools located on or near the navajo or southern ute reservations. The colorado and utah and new mexico schools were primarily an anglo staff with a mix of anglo, native american (ute and navajo), and hispanic students. In the 2013-2014 school year, the regional coordinators completed 307 school visits, 11 district- wide in-services, 16 visits with district personnel or school staff regarding boep, and 13 place-based trainings.

canyon country youth corps in 2014 ccyc operated 8 work crews, providing seasonal employment to 59 youth and accomplishing 74 crew-weeks of work (equivalent to 22,039 person-hours of labor). Ccyc ran one crew in the spring season (approximately mid-march to late june), three youth crews in the summer season (month of july), and four crews in the fall season (beginning august to mid-november). 2014 quick work and education completed stats -21,622 hours of service work on the colorado plateau -1,081 hours of education and training -55 corps members enrolled -248 acres of habitat restoration/improvement -17 miles of trail maintained or restored -72 new water bars built -75 rock stairs installed -1 mile of fencing installed, maintained, or repaired -1. 5 miles of new trail built at canyon country discovery center -28 crewmembers chainsaw trained to us forest service s-212 equivalency -16 fall crewmembers received wilderness first aid certification -4,000 plants planted in riparian areas project work highlights--spring and fall crews river restoration work ccyc participated in two river restoration projects in 2014 on the dolores river at disappointment creek and escalante river near escalante, utah. These projects were both accomplished by fall crews. Work involved the removal of the woody invasive species tamarisk and russian olive from riparian corridors in these watersheds. The dolores and escalante river projects were directed by collaborative partnerships representing many stakeholders (the dolores river restoration partnership and escalante river watershed partnership). These partnerships leverage the skills and abilities of their members to plan restoration activities, using the best available science, securing funding sources to support the work, performing the physical labor, and monitoring and evaluating the results. Ccyc is a founding member of both partnerships, and has been intimately involved in the fundraising, education, outreach, and physical labor in both projects. Ccyc is the pioneering conservation corps for riparian restoration work on the price and san juan rivers. As the land management agencies involved look to expand these two projects in the future, they will base their best practices and protocols off of the experience gained by utilizing our crews on the ground from 2012-2014. Fencing/protection along with the projects above, our crews also worked with local land management agencies to construct several cattle exclosures in selected areas around moab to help monitor cattle grazing impacts on soil and plant life. These exclosures, 2-3 acres in size, were constructed of barbed wire fence and allow the selected areas to re-vegetate free from disturbance. These areas will be studied by moab blm biologists the over the next 10 years, to see how well they recover. Spring crews also finished replacing the fencing around our new campus, the canyon country discovery center. Project work highlights--summer crews natural resource management in san juan and grand county, utah during 2014, ccyc ran three summer crews that hired predominantly local and native american youth. These crews worked in partnership with the local usfs and blm completing trails and fencing projects in the region. Crewmembers had the opportunity to learn about careers in the federal land management agencies, experience resource management work, and build valuable work experience and relationships with local land managers. These crews were the primary vehicle by which ccyc pursues its mission to educate and involve local youth in the land management process, as well as encourage them towards natural resource management careers with better tools and new attitudes towards public lands. Natural resource management and outdoor recreation provide many of the best employment opportunities in the local area, and ccyc aims to assist its local youth participants in taking advantage of those opportunities through these summer crews. During this reporting period, ccyc operated a total of 3 crews (8 members each) in san juan and grand counties. Involvement in these projects allowed ccyc to accomplish: protection of 1 spring near in dark canyon wilderness -construction of new fence near geyser pass in the la sals -1. 5 miles of trail maintained/rehabilitated on burro pass trail in the la sals -5 miles of new trail constructed on the burlifriends trail in the la sals -4 weeks of trail construction at canyon country discovery center monticello, ut

southwest ed-ventures (swed): in 2014 we had a total of 64 participants on 5 trips. Participants decreased 61% from 2013 (104 participants in 2013). We decreased the number of programs we ran in 2014 by 4 from 2013.