| Show BEE M5T7T2 £Tl by Sundi Decker editor There is loo much to possibly be said about a class (hat has been a saving force from bum-ou- t and any other plague of depression in my life this term I will do the best I can Environmental Studies— the environment amid changing values— is a collective effort much like the layers of natural formations we have seen during field experiences Basically it is canyon rims making a framework for infinite-sta- r nights it is classroom discussion about real people in a really polluted world that needs help it is the secret of an alcove in Escal ante that encloses straight Coltonwoods and conceals ow Is is the rejuvenating coldness of spring camping on our first trip it is a solitary morning at Colorado National Monument watching (he sun rise and alter a trail of endless canyon cuts before you it is coming to front the absolutely horrible abuses of this world and then seeking answers to such problems within a natural untouched setting it is watching a few brave students and one tireless instructor help an injured instructor loaded with morphine out of a deep canyon it is treading tightly on sensitive soil and confronting past peoples through their intensely high cliff dwellings and sacred pottery shards it is a discussion of balancing resources between development and preservation it is plunging into a life tied to land and prohibited only by imagination: it is laughter larger than life at everything and anything Mostly this class— all thirteen participants besides myself and two incredible personalities for instructors— is an cfTort of people taking life by the throat confronting fears and thoroughly enjoying themselves in the process For good measure I need to loss in a Henry David Thoreau quote— he is the best way I know how to express the inexpressible — “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not leant what it had to teach and not when I came to die discover that I had not lived I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life" And so far in classroom work and three trips later I have felt the healing quality of a new kind of learning This class has been the drama of my days for the past month and a half and it is has been the saving device that has made me realize that I have a place in this 2997 A world Inevitably and for the sake of survival— I have my own role to play in ensuring that this world is preserved for generations that follow mine Environmental Studies is under the direction of Eric Ewert and has been hacked up by Dr Cliff Coppersmith this term Coppersmith will continue the class next year as Ewert departs for the University of Idaho Ewert expresses that he hopes Coppersmith will make the class his own through classroom studies and tup organization as he himself has done The list of students enrolled in Environmental Studies this term is a random sampling of distinct personalities It is as follows: Kalindd Anderson Mary Anderson Aaron Brockbank Mike Dickson Fry Owen Kristy Jaramillo Rachel Maxfield Alcta Moore Lydia Josh Petersen Reese Mia Salo Shannon Sanford Chris Solbcs and me If you have questions about the class or would like to hear some good stories I encourage you to talk to any of these individuals They can probably tell you more than I can through words It's like Ewert puts it "There is no way you can go camping with I S other people and not get to know them These classes have always had fantastic chemistry" In true spirit of adventure— the class embarks on four field experiences and also takes time to do a highway clean-u- p in Price Canyon Trip one Greatest Hits Tour" and allowed students was titled the to visit Colorado National Monument Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument and Canyonlands National Park (Needles District) This trip was a car excursion designed to let students try out some of the gear they rented from the program and to get to know one another Trips back packing experiences Trip two two and three were luok students into the and petrified dry stream beds of the newly established Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument Trip three introduced students to Fish and Owl Canyons in a loop filled with Native American ruins nnd some natural arches in narrow and exquisitely canyons Trip four is another series of memories wailing to be made It is the last trip— the San Juan River Trip— that will begin May 23 Classroom work has included numerous topics of environmental concern from understanding the life styles of ancient Anasazi peoples to delving into the shocking densities of ozone depletion and water pollution Ecotourism the process of visiting land while respecting and keeping it pristine is a concept that has been introduced and practiced in the class "Ulah-Colurad- o leave-no-tra- red-rock- I M 4 W n 4 i wood-interspers- i i i i r i t f i t Every student is responsible for a journal that is made up of assigned entries that pertain to field work and class discussion and occasional made during field experiences etc Students are also required to ing complete group projects that research an environmental solutions all student and Best each of contemplating problems gets to all four sums that a assemble portfolio project up experiences linking trips Mine will be a poetry book of works penned during trips or immediately after I have offered only a bare inkling of what can be said about such a class— inside the classroom and out of it For the sake of letting you experience our adventures visually ratherthan through narrative I can proany adjective-fille- d I duce close out this explanation of circumstances that have made my life complete as this year and my time at the College of Eastern Utah ends I have new friends I have a new outlook on life and the preservation of life I am grateful for two instructors and a small group of fellow students who have made learning about such issues an experience and an adventure that is as largely profound as the world and its web of ecosystems working for self and ultimate sustenance together side-writin- gs issue-expos- A SIDE NOTE: COPPERSMITH ON MORPHINE Cliff Coppersmith leaned on what he would later call a "Wiley Coyote" rock balanced on another ruck he recalls having the feeling that it wasn't a good idea After a series of several rock crashes and yells from his isolated injury location he was discovered and presumed to have broken his foot He dodged falling rock debris but had landed on his right foul wrong lie will undergo a bone scan sometime this week to assess the full extent of damage However his fool is not broken-tendligaments and other connects e tissues have been damaged Swelling is beginning to go down-- in fact he just barely found normal wrinkles on the skin of his foot "I'm making progress" he says with an incorrigible smile Remarkably neighboring campers who had morphine came to the rescue With the hclpof Eric Ewert and students Owen Fry Aaron Brockbank and Mike Dickson Coppersmith walked more than three miles up and out of Fish Canyon duped up "I've come to appreciate Eric a lot he is a very he lifted me" Coppersmith said He explains that the strung person whole experience was intense something that will last in his imagination for years to come Evidence of the injury is not expected to go away quickly either His foot may easily slay somewhat swollen fur a whole year "There is a lesson to be learned here" Coppersmith added "Don't travel alone don't climb rucks alone" He explains that he would have been in very bad trouble if no one had been around when the accident fell upon him Furtunalely his spirits are not dampened in the least— in fact quite the contrary He will accompany the Enivronmcntal Studies group on their last trip and the group acknowledges that the trip wouldn't be the same without him When Dr ons |
