Along side Sheep Creek, near Le Grande, a high school student places her foot firmly on a shovel and pushes it into the earth. She and her class are planting trees. But this tree planting is a bit different. Students in La Grande also investigated the biological, social, and political issues involved in watershed and forest management. After designing restoration and enhancement plans for the watershed, they implemented and monitored projects over a two-year period. Successive classes will evaluate the effectiveness of the projects. Cindi Carter, a 7th grade student at La Grande Middle School said, “It felt good to know that I did something for our community and the Earth.”

These students are learning what landowners, industry leaders, politicians, and citizens across Oregon are learning: that restoration is a powerful tool for facilitating the Earth’s innate recuperative mechanisms and reconnecting communities to the place they live.