Construction Continues: Building an Awareness and Appreciation of the Environment

Casual observers may mistake the building that’s just about done being constructed behind Nicolet High where the softball fields meet the woods as some kind of athletic storage shed.  A shed it is not. Nor is it a shanty, a shelter, or a shack, though the latter is what it started out as on paper. 

Say center, and you would be correct. It’s Nicolet’s new Outdoor Environmental Center. Science teacher John Rhude, who is behind the building’s fabrication, calls it a sugarhouse, “Like a Vermont sugarhouse.”

The 30-foot by 40-foot center will actually be used to make maple syrup and, more importantly, serve as an outdoor classroom facility when it is finished, Rhude said.

I’m a huge proponent of getting kids outside, getting them away from all the electronics.”

It all started with Rhude’s first visit to the school’s five-acre woods where he noticed this fantastic forest was filled with many species of wildlife, plants, and trees—including an abundance of sugar maples.

Recognizing Nicolet had an underutilized educational resource on its hands, Rhude got the school’s approval to enroll the woods in Wisconsin’s School Forest Program.

In 1927, the Community Forest Law allowed schools to own property specifically managed for forestry. Today, the statewide program provides teaching materials, and outdoor educators and forest professionals to help school forests achieve their full potential.

With the state’s assistance, what was formerly known as “the woods” was officially named the Nicolet School Forest. In 2011, Rhude and over 100 students helped implement the forest management plan designed by the state specifically for Nicolet by cutting buckthorn, pulling garlic mustard, planting hundreds of native trees and bushes, creating new trails, and digging a soil profile pit.

And, of course, tapping those sugar maples and making maple syrup. Although he already had a sticky success story on his hands, Rhude figured the process of making maple syrup could be made more efficient and be a better learning experience for students if a “sugar shack” to house the maple syrup evaporator was added near the trees.

So last spring, a fundraiser was held to raise money to build a small shack. With the help of the Nicolet Foundation, about $22,000 was raised.

Rhude also searched for funding that encouraged teachers to get students outdoors. He and fellow science teacher Karyl Rosenberg applied for a grant from the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board and received $5,000 to write curriculum and develop an education plan for the Nicolet Forest. Currently, teachers from almost every department are helping write the outdoor curriculum.

With plans for the educational use of the forest growing, and enough funds in hand (excavation and concrete work was donated by parents, and lumber was donated by Rhude’s father), the small, simple sugar shack evolved into Nicolet’s Outdoor Environmental Center. 

It was never just about the maple syrup, as you probably realized by now.

“The original idea was to house the maple syrup evaporator and make that process bigger and faster but, at the same time, I was trying to encourage teachers and students to use the woods for education, “ Rhude said.

For example, English teachers can encourage the reading of Thoreau or Aldo Leopold or math teachers can use the forest to teach how to measure the height and diameter of trees, according to Rhude.

In the short time the Nicolet School Forest has been established, Rhude has fostered a love of the environment in a number of his students, most of who are insulated in urban environments. Imagine what Rhude and the rest of the Nicolet faculty will do once the center is completed this spring.