Fall is a wonderful time of year, the summer heat has passed, the days are beginning to get cooler, the leaves change, it’s a favorite time of year for many. It’s also the time for Farm Field Day hosted at the Prince William County Fair Grounds by the Prince William County Soil and Water Conservation District.
It’s time to show how Virginia’s natural resources fit into the world of a fourth grader.
The kids load up shortly after school starts and the buses roll into the fairgrounds by mid-morning. It takes a lot of hands and feet to manage twenty bus loads but it’s worth it.
With the hustle and bustle of modern life, the Farm Field Day is a great opportunity for PWC youth to see and learn about a part of our world often overlooked. For many of these youth it awakens new areas of interest that they have not known before.
This year Farm Field Day was October 12-13. About 40 volunteers, teens plus adults, and many staff from the PWC Soil and Water Conservation District, Department of Forestry, showed up to help.
Ten county elementary schools brought roughly 800 fourth graders. They came to see and learn critically important components of Virginia’s farms and natural resources.
Clean Cut Tree Services engaged these young learners with everything tree-possible. Groups were about 25 each and cycled in around every 25 minutes. While “trees” was our section, we also shared how trees are closely dependent on the other topics which were presented.
Other topics presented were important issues with soils and water, the critical role of pollinators (bees and many others), crops and livestock of Virginia, and the major geographical regions we have in Virginia
In the trees barn we helped the youth list as many benefits that trees provide as they could, such as: how they clean our air and give us back oxygen, how photosynthesis works, how they give almost endless number of useful products (believe it or not, “pencils” was the number one answer for sure), how they shade us in the hot summer, how they provide homes and food for us and untold numbers of animals. My favorite answer for tree benefits, however, was the boy who said trees benefit us with jobs, yes J, O, B, s “jobs”, I couldn’t agree more.
Also discussed, how trees grow, how to know the age of a tree by counting the annual growth rings of a trunk cross section. Also, the key parts of trees: roots, main stem, limbs and leaves and the role of each.
As the largest single living organisms on Earth, we really couldn’t exist without trees. One youngster pointed out that there are 300 trillion trees (yes Trillion) on our planet. That was a new one for us, I haven’t fact-checked but assuming she is correct (she DID seem pretty certain of that number!), that yields about 1,000 trees for every person on Earth!
We demonstrated how workers (arborists and others) care for our trees, the knowledge and skills needed, and the tools they use. The kids especially enjoyed trying their hands when mechanical ropes and pulleys were demonstrated. (don’t underestimate the power of ten fourth graders and a rope!)
We presented the two major types of trees (conifers and deciduous) and growth cycles we typically see. And we presented information on why some types of trees need to be removed, sometimes for safety reasons, sometimes because of the invasive habit of not-so-desirable trees (especially many non-native trees).
In summary, Farm Field Day is a tremendous opportunity for a good number of our future generation to gain new insights on the food and fiber we raise in Virginia and how the other natural resources of our environment fit into that picture. A great many were super excited to be engaged and expressed their gratitude. But probably the best compliment we received was one young lady who said upon leaving “this is great!, this is what I want to do when I grow up!!”
