The Mystery Of SLEWS

The Talon’s David Miller details his SLEWS experience, jam packed with friendship, nature, and danger.

(Picture courtesy of www.landsofamerica.com)

The Student and Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship (SLEWS) engages California high school students in habitat restoration projects. Classes go to work on a farm or a nature preserve and observe and take care of the life there.

The programs enhances classroom learning, leadership skills and results in real positive impact for the environment. Christian Brothers science teachers take their biology students to wildlife preserves on a SLEWS trip every year in Yolo County by Putah Creek.

Heidi Holman (14′) went on a SLEWS trip her junior year and believes students should go on it because it is totally different than what CB students are used to doing.

“It’s really fun and gives students the experience of working outside and caring for the environment,” she commented.

Science instructor Mr. Danny Delgado (79′) says SLEWS can involve the students in planting trees or putting up bird boxes.

“It’s an opportunity for a student to experience biology, lab science outside,” he says.

Going on a SLEWS trip can help students who want to major in Biology. Students interested should go on a SLEWS trip to get familiar with the job they may do when they get out of school.

“SLEWS is an acronym that was created by the center for land based learning out of UC Davis and Yolo County,” says Mr. Delgado.

The program started at CB about six years ago by Ms. Nicole Brousseau. She brought it to the campus for sophomores to go and learn about their environment and how to take care of it.

Thanks to Ms. Brousseau, I had a chance my junior year to go on a SLEWS trip with my friends.

We all sat down and got in a circle and said who we were and what our favorite activity was in our free time. We also played a little game.

The leader of the group would say something she has done and if we have done it we had to try and get to a flag which was in each of our places where we stood. We would proceed to run to a different flag and if we were caught in the middle we had to say something we haven’t done and go from there.

After that fun ice breaker we went to another area to learn about the different birds in the surrounding area. We got a chance to see the inside of the nests because they had extra ones with no birds in them.

After that we went to find the bird nests and check and see if there were any eggs in the surrounding area. It was quite windy that day, making it hard for us to see the birds flying around.

On our walk there was a river that was tempting us to swim in, but it was obviously not possible with the rocks. A hay ride was then incorporated into our tour of the reserve.

Part of the experience was quite dangerous because we had to go down a makeshift hill at a dangerous angle. But we all got down safely and had a nice lunch when we got back to the entrance of the reserve.

CB sophomores in their biology class are obligated to go on a SLEWS trip. Before any sophomores say they do not want to go, just try something new and experience SLEWS for yourself.