Copper River Stewardship Lessons in Haiku
By Robin Mayo, for The Cordova Times
Cordova student Gage Frohnhapfel records data
As the school year begins, Copper River Stewardship Program participants are completing their final projects inspired by their summer “field school” experience.
For 10 days in July, high school students from the Copper Basin and Cordova participated in the program, an intensive exploration of the watershed that gives the students a chance to learn about the diverse communities and ecosystems that make up the region. This year’s theme was “Helping youth find their voices,” with daily writing and reflection projects.
Alex VanWyhe was the guest educator, leading the humanities portion of the program. Ten years ago, VanWyhe was a student in WISE’s Watershed Leadership Program, a precursor to the Copper River Stewardship Program. He now teaches English at Haines High School, and his participation in this year’s program brought it full circle.
The 10 students were chosen through a competitive process, and will earn high school credit for completing the program and doing final projects.
The students paddled canoes up and down Alaganik Slough to a US Forest Service camp on the Copper River Delta, where we helped maintain artificial nest islands for Dusky Canada Geese. We took a long ferry ride through Prince William Sound with a chance to learn more about the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Then we joined a BLM Glennallen Field Office river crew for a raft trip down the Gulkana River from Paxson Lake to Sourdough.
Early in the trip, the students learned to write Haiku, a Japanese poetry form with a simple five-seven-five syllable count. VanWyhe encouraged the students to write throughout the trip, with the incentive of a poetry competition and prizes on the last day. Students and staff alike tapped out rhythms on canoe paddles, tent walls and raft oars for the rest of the trip, and scribbled our words into “Rite in the Rain” notebooks. On the final evening, the stewards gathered around a fire and shared their best efforts.
As the school year begins, CRSP participants are completing their final projects inspired by their summer field school experience. Glennallen student Moses Korth pursued a unique and ambitious project, an oil painting capturing a variety of landscapes. Korth has studied oil painting as part of his Upstream Learning homeschool curriculum. Naomi Young of Casa de la Arte helped Korth create this canvas. It was Korth’s first time exploring the Copper River Delta area, and he chose two diverse locations: the marshy Copper River delta wetlands, and the temperate rainforest with huge Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock trees.
“My name is Moses A. Korth,” he said. “I wanted to join this trip first of all because I always feel at home in the backwoods. But also because I grew up in a very pro-industrial economy setting, and wanted to hear the environmentalist viewpoint.
“As a final project I have constructed a comparison by contrast,” Korth said. “On top I painted the nesting grounds of the Dusky Canadian Geese. Below I have the coniferous rainforest near Cordova. These are two different landscapes in the Copper River Watershed.”
Cassidy Austin-Merlimo of McCarthy and Kelsie Friendshuh of Kenny Lake worked on writing and art projects
The Copper River Stewardship Program is organized by WISE, Prince William Sound Science Center, Copper River Watershed Project, US Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This year’s program was made possible with funding from Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and BLM.
Here are the students’ Haiku:
Patiently walking
Throughout the day we slowly went
Through Dusky Bay
— Joseph Hardy, Kenny Lake
Cool liquid glistens
In the morning sun as waves
Spread like wildfires
— Kaleb Carillo, Cordova
Spa-loosh we tramp on
Through the bogs squishy terrain
And the sound of life
— Izaac Nelson, Strelna
Team Dusky works hard
Viciously ripping Sweet Gale
From Shrek’s musky swamp
— Jessie Hale, Strelna
Once used boats now tied
Waters change behind our backs
We wander onward
Boots stomp natures path
The scenic view is foreign
We wander onward
Artificial land
We are tasked with maintenance
We have met our task
— Will Hand, Glennallen
Invisible from view
Nestled between the shrubs
Protect the nests
— Ethan Beckett, Cordova
We slide upon rocks
Struggling from their heavy grasp
Worn rafts now flow free
— Will Hand, Glennallen
Hear the water’s rush
A tintinnabulation
Nature’s instrument
— Moses Korth, Glennallen
Why does everyone forget,
Summer isn’t over yet.
Nine months of winter I did my school,
Just like any other fool.
And just as that’s all dead and gone,
Just as winter’s finally done,
I find school has followed me here,
This is now my serious fear.
Oh, why does everyone forget,
Summer isn’t over yet.
— Moses Korth, Glennallen
Golden rays cast down
From the foggy sky above
Warming the ocean
— Cassidy Austin-Merlino, McCarthy
Mud clouds around you
Disguising the underneath
Who knows what’s below?
— Kelsie Friendshuh, Kenny Lake
As the tide passes
We sit, cold in the water
Writing a haiku.
— Cassidy Austin-Merlino, McCarthy
and Kelsie Friendshuh, Kenny Lake
