Engaged students answer questions about Hancock’s working forest
Hancock Lumber collaborated with Project Learning Tree and Lake Region Middle School to host a Forestry Field Day event on June 3rd for a hundred students. In an effort to bring the classroom to a real-world setting, students spent part of the day touring historic Jugtown Forest with Hancock employees, learning about the company history, forest management and harvesting operations. While exploring the hiking trails, Hancock employees educated the seventh and eighth graders on best forest management and harvesting practices, natural regeneration, zero-waste manufacturing, company history and their tradition of stewardship.
Jugtown Forest contains about 5,000 acres of privately owned mixed-use land that is open to the public for recreational use and exploration. Miles of marked hiking trails weave in and out of some of the state’s best land for growing Eastern White Pine trees. During the visit, students were fortunate to get a special tour of Hancock Lumber’s original 1848 sawmill site that operated during the company’s beginning years. As a working forest, Hancock Lumber uses the land to selectively harvest Eastern White Pine trees for manufacturing. The area is best known to locals, however, for its recreational exploration including horseback riding, ATVing, snowmobiling, hunting, hiking and more!
Students waiting to tour the forest at the Edes Falls Road kiosk parking lot
Hancock’s Marketing + Communications director, Erin Plummer, commented on the tours, “Getting the chance to educate students on forest management and harvesting best practices, as well as the company’s history and current business is fun for our employees. The students were engaged and enjoyed answering pop questions to earn Hancock Lumber hats, pencils and even ‘Forest Hancock’ tattoos. We appreciate Project Learning Tree and LRMS collaborating and asking Hancock Lumber to be a part of this special day.”
Stewardship is one of the Hancock’s guiding principles and the students learned valuable lessons about taking care of things and leaving them in better shape then when they assumed responsibility for them. Hancock Lumber employees stressed the importance of both taking care of the beautiful land that exists, and making it better whenever possible for generations to come.
Project Learning Tree (PLT) is an award winning international environmental education program. It uses the forest as a “window on the world” to increase students’ understanding of our complex environment. PLT teaches not only about trees, but has informative lessons about land, the air, and the water. These lessons help to instill the confidence and commitment to take responsible action on behalf of the environment.