Forest Spirit Becomes School Spirit
“There is no WI-FI in the forest, but I promise you will find a better connection.” – Ralph Smart
Since the 1940’s, Wausau educators have asked the spirit of the Wausau School Forest into their classrooms. For generations, that forest spirit has flowed into the students and teachers and from them into the school buildings and the community; it has flowed outward into volunteers and architects and community leaders and educators from around the world.
The forest is over 400 acres. Though it had been nearly clear cut, it’s since been replanted in pine and hardwoods. Eleven miles southwest of the city on the Wisconsin River, it has miles of trails for hiking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing on groomed trails.
The strength of this spirit can be seen in the design and development of Wausau School District’s new Environmental Learning Center (ELC) -- a 9,300 square foot, $6.6 million building completed in the Fall of 2023.
The building and the forest are an integrated pair and part of the sustainability curriculum where “students learn about nature, learn about working together, and learn there is a little more inside of themselves than they thought possible.”
The new ELC includes classrooms, laboratories, and displays that support year-round learning. The layout of the building centers on the Great Room. Its location and windows capitalize on the view of the Wisconsin River.
Roots
It was the bees in the walls that finally did it. Or maybe it was the bats who came to roost through the holes chewed by other animals. The old lodge (photo at left) has been part of the District's curriculum since the 1940’s. It had been moved to the forest from a Civilian Conservation Corp camp, a program under President Franklin Roosevelt.
Everyone loved the lodge. Kids and community members had been using it every possible day for decades as a gateway to the School Forest. Many Wausau students can’t afford other outdoor experiences; for some, the Forest is the farthest they’ve travelled.
In 2014 the Wausau School District realized that the Old Red Lodge it used to gather and teach students about the forest had to be replaced. Uninsulated and leaking, the walls were leaning; there’d never been a real foundation. At first the district thought about how to salvage the lodge and its bell tower, but realized it wasn’t economical.
Chris Nelson, Environmental Education Coordinator led the effort to replace the Old Red Lodge with a state-of-the-art Environmental Education Center. But he said, “My grandfather would come to the first in his Model T Ford to water the new trees.”
Design Spirit
The original idea for the replacement building was an enlarged version of the lodge. But sketched on a napkin were ideas for all that a modern facility could be and do as a safe, fun, and inspiring experience for all its users, from pre-K to parents and staff. It should also be a place to remember. And it had to be usable in all seasons.
The project team of Nexus Solutions and Somerville Architects and Engineers challenged the district with “blue sky” questions about their goals and vision for education and community involvement for the next eighty years. They helped district leaders realize they didn’t want students to look to the past, but to feel that environmental awareness means looking into the future.
The result was a future-forward design that would excite the students about their own futures as stewards of the environment. As part of the $119 million referendum (approved in 2022) for facilities projects throughout the 9,000-student district, the Center’s spirit generated surprising results.
Spirit of Generosity and a Saber-Toothed Tiger
Not only did the referendum pass (at 60%), but the design also inspired community members to donate to the Environmental Learning Center. Besides money, donations included all the casework for the displays, taxidermy, and sprinklers. Donors provided the landscaping and the materials and labor to build a forty-foot climbing wall, an outdoor amphitheater, and a brick patio. One surprising donation was the complete skeleton of a saber-tooth tiger.
But perhaps the most spectacular donation was a realistic steel and concrete sculpture of a 25-foot oak tree that greets you right when you enter. Created by artist and Wausau East graduate Eric Thomas, it fills the two-story entry (as seen in this video). Nelson says, “I wanted to provide visitors a WOW factor.”
School Spirit
Diana White, Coordinator of Communications & Marketing, clearly remembers the “wows” on the faces she saw at the November 2023 open house. “The smiles were amazing. I kept hearing, ‘Look at that!’ It gave me the chills; I knew the Center would be transformative.” (see video)
Everyone in the district uses the facility. All but six days are scheduled for a year out. Unlike the Old Red Lodge, the new ELC provides year-round opportunities for kids to spend time with the two instructors. It has classrooms designed for small children and rooms specifically for science classes, and has the latest learning technology, including microscopes that link to large monitors.
Something that draws everyone’s attention are the matched winter and fall dioramas. The winter display centers around a beaver lodge that’s cut in half, showing their slide into a pond. Above the snow you can see, among other animals, a fisher and a timber wolf and, in a pine tree, a snowy owl. Under the snow, you see hibernating snakes and of course badgers. The fall display is the same pond with a dead oak tree and—because so many people ask about it—edible mushrooms like Hen of the Woods. Above the ground is a white-tailed deer and herons; below ground is a wood chuck burrow and snapping turtles donated by a local taxidermist.
Environmental Spirit and Volunteerism
The new Center will continue to shape lives in Wausau. Former students are now regular volunteers, including a Wausau police officer. Nelson recently bumped into a Wausau high school student who’d been to the forest every day, often staying overnight in the old lodge. This young man said, “I’m going to college and majoring in wildlife management.” This doesn’t surprise Nelson: he knows many graduates who went to college to study forestry or natural resources.
The new building has drawn the attention of other environmental educators from around the country, including an educator from Scotland, who shadowed Nelson and students for a day to learn how to teach about forestry and forest management.
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