‘This is the best field trip ever’

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This article was published 30/10/2023 (772 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A forgotten field trip site near Albert Beach is being revitalized to host land-based lessons in the Lord Selkirk School Division — the unlikely owners of the 51-acre lot — and student visitors from all over Manitoba.

Albert Beach Trail encompasses a 1.1-kilometre pathway that winds through a mature boreal forest and an open activity area located beside its cottage community namesake. The boggy woodlands are home to one of the largest standing birch tree populations in the province.

“No other school division owns a piece of property like this,” said retiree Ken Avery, who sat on the school board for 30 years. “It’s a jewel within their division.”

The longtime trustee, who left his post last year, advocated for the site’s renewal while it sat empty and unpruned for years as its upkeep was overlooked, and funds and resources were directed elsewhere.

Developers expressed interest in purchasing the vacant lot, but he said the board never seriously entertained selling it. As far as Avery’s concerned, the destination has always had the potential to become the FortWhyte Alive of Manitoba’s East Beaches.

Earlier this month, after roughly two decades of the space sitting dormant, Jodi Forfar organized the first student hike and scavenger hunt on the newly groomed grounds.

Twenty-eight middle schoolers were sent out with whiteboards and tablets, and tasked with taking notes, snapping photos and using plant-identification apps to record their findings. They left with a newfound understanding of moss, ferns and Labrador tea, among other species.

“I heard kids saying, ‘This is awesome, this is the best field trip ever’ — and to me, that justified all the hard work that we’ve been doing over the last several years,” said Forfar, a science teacher at Lockport School.

Forfar has been involved in the revitalization project since it got underway in 2015.

The self-described outdoor education enthusiast was tapped to oversee the committee in charge of its comeback, which was sparked by then-superintendent Scott Kwasnitza, because of her hand in building an open-air classroom at her junior high. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted and delayed reopening of the site.

As of this year, the new trail and a picnic shelter are accessible via 55 Christopher Rd., located about 100 km north of the Perimeter Highway. The area is free for community use.

The lot was originally transferred to the Selkirk-based district when it was created in 1967, as a result of an amalgamation of independent and public schools in the region.

In 1981, a teacher-led outdoor education association received approval to create a camp in the forested area. The following year, volunteers built a main lodge and the first of a series of cabins that were frequented by staff and students until they were deemed unsafe in 2005.

“The architects decided that the buildings weren’t safe because it wasn’t certified lumber. The lumber used was rough lumber,” recalled Bob Jesson, a retired principal who serves on the school board. “I was disappointed that we had to shut it down.”

Jesson used to take staff and students up to the area for overnight trips. The groups played games, completed a “fitness trail” and in the winter, built quinzees, he said, adding the outings were a school-year highlight for students and staff alike.

For Forfar, the Oct. 13 “maiden voyage” was yet another reminder of how valuable spending time in nature is for students’ physical and mental health.

“There’s ‘nature deprivation’ for some students that don’t get opportunities to be out in outdoor settings like this, so providing those opportunities and having it accessible for everyone is important,” Forfar said.

Members of the school division’s maintenance crew cleaned up the trail and marked it as part of the first phase of the renewal project. The second stage involved levelling a large activity area, bringing in gravel and setting up infrastructure, including a wheelchair-accessible picnic table, to facilitate day trips.

A grand opening is anticipated in the spring, after which Forfar said she wants to invite colleagues to start taking field trips year-round and facilitating land-based lessons with support from Indigenous teachers and local elders.

“We are so lucky that we have an abundance of birch trees, so we have quite a bit of (what we call) ‘the king of medicines,’” said Jacqueline Bercier​, a Métis-Anishinaabe educator who oversees the division’s cultural perspectives and languages programs.

Not only will visitors be able to go on medicine walks and harvest plants, but they will also be able to participate in teachings about species ranging from wild mint to sweetgrass, Bercier said.

“We want (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students) to be more in connection with the land,” she said. “The trail is broken up enough so you have to slow down.”

Bercier added she hopes they will eventually be able to construct a teepee and sweat lodge on the grounds.

The long-term plan also involves rebuilding overnight cabins around the trail and hosting local children and students from neighbouring districts for overnight trips.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca