Imagine it's five in the morning and an Oklahoma State University student has just finished packing the car. Armed with a road map and everything ranging from camping gear to the kitchen sink, the student starts across the country to meet a bunch of friends. Together, they will live in the wilderness for nine weeks.

They are forestry majors participating in the OSUís Roving Summer Camp program. The program is required for forestry students before they begin taking upper-division classes.

Oklahoma State has held 50 summer camps in 20 different states and one foreign country since 1948, taking advantage of the distinctive forest resource settings, activities, operations and issues in each camp region.

"OSU takes advantage of the wide range of forest regions across the country," said Thomas Kuzmic, associate professor and summer camp director.

He takes the students outside the mid-south region, in which Oklahoma is located, to further educate the students in the diversity of forestry resources and practices.

The camp program is comprised of four required forestry upper-division classes: FOR 3001 ó Multiple Use and Values of Forest Resources, FOR 3003 ó Forest Mensuration II, FOR 3011 ó Logging and Milling Operations and FOR 3013 ó Silvics and Field Silviculture.

"There are too many restraints in the classroom, so we go to the forest," Kuzmic said. "We let the forest be our teacher."
 

The camp format is made up of lectures, hands-on experiences, on-site visits, laboratory exercises and special programs in a diversity of forestry topics. These topics include: timber inventory, measurement of tree dimensions, forest ecology, silvicultural practices, forest protection, forest soils, watershed management, wildlife habitat management, timber harvesting, wood products manufacture, mapping and land survey, wildland recreation management, professional ethics and forest resource administration.

"Students gain experience in managing time and resources, teamwork and leadership," Kuzmic said.

Some forestry topics can not be taught as well in the classroom as other areas of forestry. 

Therefore, the students benefit by experiencing a professional work environment in the woods, where they work from eight in the morning to five in the evening.

"Students change positively during camp," Kuzmic said. "They develop an eagerness for learning."

Jennifer Bovee, a junior from Hamden, Conn., went to camp in 1998 at Pingree Park, Colo. Bovee said she learned how to cruise timber, which is sampling a given tract of land to determine total wood volume.

"I was on a crew of three that cruised 75 acres a day," she said.

Summer camp is an exercise in living in a professional environment consisting of fieldwork, study and recreational activities.

"Summer camp allows students to diversify and learn that not everybody thinks like Oklahomans," Kuzmic said.

Dillion Curran, a senior from Enid, Okla., went to camp at Cloquet, Minn., in 1997.

"Growing up in Oklahoma, you don't often get to see how an economy relies on timber," he said.

Students usually have weekends off to use as recreational time, therefore Kuzmic encourages them to go camping, hiking, fishing and exploring.

Bovee said her greatest camp experience occurred when the professors took them hiking over two 12,000-foot mountains.

Kuzmic said Oklahoma State runs one of the most cost-efficient summer camps in the nation, because the university does not own a camp facility that must be staffed and maintained. Every year the forestry department takes students to a different camp location, giving the camp its name, roving summer camp.

"Traveling to different summer camp locations helps to enrich the faculty," he said. "It allows professors to cite unique case studies from the field."

Most of the forestry faculty have been to camp at least once; however, budget demands have reduced faculty involvement. Kuzmic said in previous years, four professors taught the courses at camp, but this year, a fifth will be added. Student costs receive great consideration when planning and scheduling camp locations.

Students must pay a "camp fee" that covers lodging, meals, operational costs, transportation and certain supplies. Last year's camp fee was $1,293. Students also must enroll in eight hours of upper-division classes, buy the required textbooks, and provide their own way to and from camp.

Curran said living in the forestry environment for nine weeks was for him the best experience of the camp ó something no summer job could offer.

"Cost was not a big deal," said Nathan Johnrow, a junior from Enid, Okla., who also camped at Cloquet in 1997. "When you start out in the program, you know you have to go through camp and prepare for it."

Ten years later, a couple of OSU alums have finished packing the car for a family vacation. With a road map in the glove box and the kids buckled in, they take off once again for Pingree Park. As they back out of the driveway, mom and dad begin telling the stories of OSU's Roving Forestry Summer Camp at Pingree Park, and mom was running a chainsaw ó dropping trees right along with the guys.

By Amy Hagebusch

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