Southeast Send Off!

All over AR.  For the past three months, we have traveled all over the Southeast providing outreach and workshops to more than 25 schools, universities, organizations, and land management agencies.  All though Arkansas expands our reach to just west of the Mississippi River, we experienced some creative groups that are benefiting from the Leave No Trace Program.  We spent three days at Lake Dardanelle State Park, which provides interpretive programs to visitors at the park.  Take a look at the photo below:  The park rents out backpacks for families looking for interesting and educational activities to fill their time while at the lake.  Notice the Leave No Trace hang tag attached to the pack!

From there, we traveled to Northwest AR, where we worked with 8th grade students from Pea Ridge, who would be attending Outdoor School at Devil's Den State Park later that week.  Our workshop prepared them with a good introduction to how they can be stewards of the land and take responsibility for their choices while enjoying the park.  Following that, we met up with Jennifer Hazelrigs, Leave No Trace State Advocate for the state of Arkansas, at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, for the Arkansas Adventure Programming Conference.

Jennifer Hazelrigs and Scott Dirksen-Lyon College were excited to see Bigfoot come out for the Saturday morning trail run!  

This student-led conference drew faculty and staff from 6 colleges and universities from AR, KY, TX, and IA.  With over 80 participants on site over the weekend, and the majority of the programs led by student presenters, there were many opportunities to learn new skills and gain valuable knowledge of outdoor programming.

We led a three hour skills workshop, with a surprise guest!

Horseshoe Canyon had many goats, horses, dogs, and mules that call the Ranch home.  We were shocked to have two horses join us at our workshop, first time for that!  This would not be the last time we see horses this week...

Tracy, Jacque, Kate and Rob in Snowball, AR.

We finished up our time in Arkansas on horseback!  We spent the day with Rob Stephens, BSA/Leave No Trace all around champion, and Jacque Alexander, Leave No Trace/Backcountry Horseman of America advocate, as well as other members of BCH of Arkansas for a trail ride along the Buffalo River National Park.  15 miles later, we enjoyed river crossings, wildflowers in bloom, and riding along the painted bluffs, all the while making friends with everyone including "Dakota and Shorty".  Thank you to Jacque, Rob, and all of the ladies on the ride.  Oh what a day-Glorious!

As we head towards the Northeast, we reflect on all of our events the past few months since the 2012 season began and look forward with great anticipation for the next three months in the Northeast!

Respect the Resource...Kate and Tracy