Outdoor briefs: Helena students do forest monitoring; Apprentice Hunter Program; and more

Anderson students do forest monitoring

Seventh grade students from C.R. Anderson Middle School went up Mount Helena on Sept. 28 to do forest monitoring and to share the data with the city of Helena.

Students work together to conduct forest monitoring – collecting info on the diameter, health, height and species of the trees in their plot.

Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest

It’s part of a program run by the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest since 2002. Students practice using a clinometer to measure the heights of trees, do an assessment of the understory, learn to check for health of the trees, and even get a chance to use a tree borer to learn the age of a tree.

The original founder of this program, Sam Gilbert, came out to support the program this year alongside Conservation Educator Liz Burke, who has championed the program the past 20-plus years, tirelessly working in the background to set everything up for success.

In addition to many staff from the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, the program relies on volunteers and partners from Montana Discovery Foundation,

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