Maine Forest Collaborative hosts rural high school students at UMaine

ORONO – On Feb. 25 the Maine Forest Collaborative hosted its mid-year Cohort Day at the University of Maine, bringing together 25 students from three rural high schools to engage in hands-on learning and collaboration focused on solutions work surrounding forestry and natural resource sectors. Participating schools included Telstar Regional High School of Telstar, Schenck High School of East Millinocket and Tri-County Technical Center of Dexter.

This event allowed students to explore innovative forestry-related technologies, sustainability initiatives and career pathways within Maine’s forest industry and adjacent natural resource and innovation related pathways. Through interactive sessions, expert discussions and networking opportunities, students gained valuable insights into the future of forest management, economic sustainability and technological advancements shaping the industry.

The sessions included:

Bioproducts, where students enjoyed a hands-on learning experience with nanocellulose, a non-toxic bio-based material made from plant fibers that is being researched for use in products ranging from fire extinguisher foam and replacement bone material to sustainable packaging.

Making Choices Under Constraint, where students learned how economists think about optimization, scarcity, and decision-making in the real world by using trees as a shared resource, teams will decide how best to allocate them across competing uses of paper, energy, furniture, and futuristic 3D-printed houses

Exploring the Ash Tree’s Past & Future, where students took a brief tour of the brown ash basket collection at UMaine’s Hudson Museum where students learned about the importance of brown ash basketmaking in Wabanaki communities and the threat the invasive emerald ash borer poses to ash trees across the region and efforts to collect and store ash seed for future forest restoration efforts.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & Virtual Room, where students learned how researchers are working on a drone that will collect under the canopy data on forests to aid in harvesting and health assessments. Students got to see the drone avoiding obstacles in simulation, the custom-built drone that is facing some engineering challenges, and took a virtual reality tour of a local Maine forest.

One student, when reflecting on the UAV session and shared that in the session they learned that AI had more benefits connected to the environment and forest health assessment than they realized were possible, while others made connections about how the virtual room and simulations could be applied in multiple other settings including ways to practice to learn a new task before actually doing it.

The second part of the day involved allowing students to share and give/receive feedback on place-based projects that they are currently working on as part of their class. Students are tasked at the start of the year with finding a natural resource challenge affecting their school/community and use the design thinking process to develop a solution to implement with help from community partners. MFC’s purpose is to prepare students to actively contribute to the vitality of our forest communities today and in the future, and is dedicated to fostering education and innovation within Maine’s forestry and natural resource sectors.

This project was funded in part by the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, in which proceeds from the sale of a dedicated instant lottery ticket (currently Dragonfly Dollars) are used to support outdoor recreation and natural resource conservation. For more information about MOHF, go to www.maine.gov/ifw/mohf. This program is also supported in part through the National Science Foundation EPSCoR E-RISE RII: Enhancing Maine Forest Economy, Sustainability, and Technology Ecosystem to Accelerate Innovation (Maine-FOREST) initiative. Maine-FOREST is backed by National Science Foundation award #OIA-2416918, reinforcing its commitment to strengthening Maine’s leadership in forest economy advancements.

For more information about the Maine Forest Collaborative, please contact Sara King at maineforestcollaborative.org/contact.