New K-12 video highlights Oregon’s “Forest Team”

I’m excited to share our newest OFRI video, Forest Team GO! It was developed for fourth- through sixth-grade students, to show them the range of careers in the forest sector and how these professionals work together to manage our forests.

The video explains the sustainable cycle of forestry while introducing students to the Forest Team, including:

-    tree growers (botanists and seedling managers), who oversee the germination of seeds in nurseries
-    tree planters (reforestation workers), who plant seedlings by hand all over Oregon
-    foresters, who ensure trees grow healthy and fast
-    forest scientists (wildlife and fish biologists, hydrologists), who ensure fish and wildlife habitat is protected and who monitor water quality to provide clean drinking water
-    forest engineers, the team that takes information from the foresters and scientists and uses it to help design roads, bridges and river crossings so they can handle the trucks and equipment needed to cut the trees 
-    loggers, the people who harvest the trees and load them as carefully as possible so the ground isn’t damaged

You may recognize the star of this video, Lauren Grand, an Oregon State University Extension forester serving Lane County. Lauren’s passion for forestry shines through in this video, and we’re grateful for her participation. Because the audience for this video is students in fourth through sixth grades, we also relied on Lauren to add some “fun” to the production. She was up for the challenge, and in addition to running, jumping and rolling in and out of scenes, Lauren allowed us to use special effects to underscore some key points. 

I also want to thank Norie Dimeo-Ediger, OFRI’s director of K-12 education programs, and Jordan Benner, OFRI’s senior manager of public outreach, for their work in the production of Forest Team GO! With Norie’s expertise in the K-12 audience and Jordan’s creative expertise, they make a great team!

We’ve already started to share Forest Team GO! with OFRI’s K-12 education partners such as Talk About Trees, Starker Forests and Port Blakely, and they’re excited to start showing the video to students who attend their forest education programs. The video will also be shown at events including the Oregon Logging Conference in Eugene. 

It’s great to have a new and engaging piece of content to share the story of Oregon’s cycle of sustainable forestry – and the team of men and women who make it possible.

For the forest,

Erin Isselmann
Executive Director