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Friday, May 18, 2012
Covering Dallas, Monmouth, Independence, Falls City and surrounding areas since 1868
Faces third- and fourth-grade teacher Bethany Walton leads a group of students up the trail on Basket Slough National Wildlife Refuge Friday, Oct. 14.
October 18, 2011
FALLS CITY -- Twenty-eight Falls City students bounded out of a school bus Friday, Oct. 14, and into the crisp fall morning air at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge.
Equipped with sturdy shoes, or rubber boots in some cases, and warm jackets, the students were ready for a close encounter with nature.
The half-day trip to Baskett Slough is one of the many Friday field trips coordinated by Falls City's after-school program, Family Academic Clubs and Enrichment for Success (FACES).
The mission on this trip was to see wildlife from the trails crisscrossing Baskett Butte.
FACES third- and fourth-grade teacher Bethany Walton had the students line up in the parking lot, preparing to lead the group uphill to the observation deck at the crest of the butte.
Wild animals -- with the exception of bees from a nearby hive -- didn't reveal themselves on the trek up to the summit of the butte north of Dallas.
"It's really beautiful, but I want to see some animals," said third-grader Cherokee Brock, pretty much summing up the sentiment of her schoolmates.
After catching their breath, though, the students looked closer and began to see what they were searching for: birds in every direction.
Geese and blue herons were lounging in the slough and so
Nathan Kempfer, left, and Isles McCready, both 12 and seventh-graders from Falls City, take in the view from the observation deck at the crest of Baskett Butte.
"This is awesome," said seventh-grader Isles McCready, who brought binoculars for the occasion. "There's lots of birds."
Leading the group on a trail circling the butte, Walton stopped, carefully pointing out two deer standing motionless in the trees.
She encouraged her students to slow down, instead of bounding down the trails. Walton advised them to keep their ears and eyes open to spot animals hiding among the trees and brush.
"You need to listen when you are walking," she said.
Isles took the instruction to heart.
"I'm a nature person," he said. "I enjoy nature very much. Nature is better than the city."
After walking the butte trails once, the class headed back to the parking lot to eat lunch. Students talked about what they noticed along the hike while enjoying peanut butter and jelly bagels and veggies from their brown bag lunches. Weather-permitting -- a light rain started falling during the lunch break -- they would break into smaller groups carefully search for more wild things on a second trip over and around the butte.
Isles said he had already noticed deer, plenty of birds, and a creepy-looking hollowed out tree.
What was the best of them all?
With certainty, Isles said "The deer."
ACEBOOK