A group of Warner students spent a weekend in mid-October volunteering, bonding and collecting data in Mt. Hood. This was made possible by a grant from the Katherine Bisbee II Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation.
The service trip was a chance to work alongside conservation experts from Wilderness Volunteers and the Mt. Hood National Forest Rangers on a restoration project for forest, fish and local habitat.
Sergei Polozov, Professor of Biology and Dean of Natural Sciences and Health arranged and accompanied six students.
“Our Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Cecelia Monto was the one who located this grant in the first place. She became inspired with the idea to provide our students with a unique experience, and initiated our application,” Polozov said.
The group who participated consisted of only one science major. The majors of the other students included sociology, business and theology.
“That’s the whole idea,” Polozov said. “We’re very pleased with such a broad representation.”
In addition to collecting environmental data, the group planted trees and did stream repair.
“I’ve done field projects with students my whole life,” Polozov said. “Exposure is transformative. It changes students’ lives.”
Polozov’s own interest was sparked as a child. His father was a hunter and interested in nature photography. His mother was interested in nature and books.
“When I was 7 years old, I wrote an essay that I should become a wildlife biologist because that is the best job in the world,” Polozov said. “Maybe because my parents exposed me to nature from very early childhood. My first memories are all about nature. Living in a big city, families move to summer houses for summer. That’s when you’re on the river and in the forest. It’s a pretty typical Russian childhood.”
In his time as a biologist and educator, he’s had several experiences where students were so inspired by the work in a field project that they decided to change majors.
“It was a hope to let them get first-hand experience with things about nature, which they had not necessarily done before,” Polozov said.
On this trip, students learned something new about nature every day. And they learned a lot about people professionally working for conservation.
“I have to say all our collaborators were amazing people, very professional,” Polozov said. “I was happy to see how our students absorbed all this contribution from so many different people.”
The students also were an unusually good group, Polozov said.
“All the students were above average in dedication to each other and the group,” he said. “They were very thoughtful and very willing to contribute to the group.”
Student Loo Nollette approached the experience with a childlike curiosity.
“It was educational, wholesome, connecting, rejuvenating, humbling, peaceful, motivating,” Nollette said. “It was like being a kid again, learning about the world around you, working in the dirt, contributing to this intelligent and complex system of nature, feeling like a part of that system.”
Polozov gathered the students each day after dinner. It was an opportunity for students to share their impressions and ask questions.
“We wanted students to connect between themselves and what I can tell you is this particular thing was the very first topic brought up,” Polozov said. “They said, ‘We cannot believe how easily we all get together and become equally inspired.’”
While the goal was to combine volunteering with data collection and habitat restoration, the experience went beyond Polozov’s expectations. They were the very first group to collect data in this area.
“We collected data on newly created creeks within the valley of the Zigzag River,” he said. “The data we collected was not like educational data – we collected industry standard data which are already incorporated into the Forest Service database. And will be used to compare similar data later.”
For Matthew Gabbard, this hands-on work revealed both the negative impact people have had on the salmon population and how efforts can help restore the environment.
“There’s hope! Having Sergei Polozov with us greatly enriched my experience,” Gabbard said. “I can look around and enjoy nature on my own, but to have Sergei there to guide me into deeper knowledge and understanding of everything I was looking at—whether it be information about the land, plants, or animals—was priceless! Sergei was a keystone player on our adventure.”
Polozov said that experiences like this bring virtually unlimited opportunities for people to explore nature and explore themselves.
“The most important outcome of my experience at the Mt. Hood reforestation service was to gain awareness of the impact a human can make to the environment,” said Milari Carpenter Beltran. “What we do or not do makes a difference in our society and environment. In this service, I had the opportunity to work with Professor Sergei and five peers. Professor Sergei was an excellent leader who guided our team to the tasks we were doing for our project. Professor Sergei is knowledgeable and passionate about science and nature, his passion and positive attitude was contagious and helped me enjoy this service with curiosity, amazement, and be perceptive to learn more about our environment. I am grateful for having this experience, getting to know my peers and bond with them and be more appreciative of people who work hard to preserve nature.”
Opportunities for similar projects are bountiful in Oregon, Polozov said.
“I absolutely encourage (people) to join us, or to join anybody and to do something like this,” he said. This is a contribution to society, and a contribution to nature. It’s an opportunity to do something meaningful and useful and to make friends.