Eighth Grade Students at Lincoln Ackerman explore forest features
Eighth grade students from Lincoln Ackerman School in Hampton Falls visited Clay Brook Forest with their teacher Lisa Woodruff, landowner James Kibler and Forest Society Sr Director of Education, Dave Anderson.
The Clay Brook Forest adjacent to wetlands along Clay Brook and the Taylor River in Hampton Falls provided a perfect, natural outdoor classroom setting for local 8th grade students to explore topics including tree identification, wildlife habitats, wetlands and local land use history and contemporary land conservation.
Eighth grade science teacher Lisa Woodruff and her colleagues at Lincoln Ackerman School brought approximately 30 high energy students for two rotating tours with Hampton Falls landowner and UNH economics professor James Kibler and Dave Anderson, Forest Society Education Director.
The property provides an outdoor laboratory with a historic mill site on the Taylor River, stonewalls, walking trails and riparian (river-edge) forests of white pine, hemlock, red oak and northern hardwoods. Beaver influenced wetlands along Clay Brook include open water marsh, forested red-maple wetland edges and and shrub-scrub types providing exemplary wildlife habitats.
The students explored the property and discussed tree types and wildlife associations including beavers and river otters while also learning about the history of the historic mill site in Hampton Falls. The property is the subject of a local land conservation campaign by the Town of Hampton Falls and The Friends of Clay Brook Forest and The Forest Society which seeks to protect the 32 acre property.
For more information about Clay Brook Forest project: https://forestsociety.org/project/clay-brook-forest