Students are standing up for old-growth!

A huge thank you goes out to teacher Gail Hiebert and the 150 students from David Hoy Elementary (Fort St. James) who participated in the BC government’s old-growth strategic review! This public consultation process, which ended on January 31, invited the public to share their views on the importance of old-growth forests in British Columbia.

Thanks to Gail’s dedication to this important feedback period, she motivated 80 intermediate-grade learners to do the online questionnaire and another 75 elementary-grade learners to complete drawings with their messages to the BC government. Scroll through some of their artwork below! You can enlarge the images to read them better by clicking the expand button in the bottom right hand corner.

Here are steps that Gail took to ensure her school community knew about this opportunity to participate in the public review process. We find this to be a useful guide for how you can encourage school participation in your next activism project:

Share and briefly explain the opportunity in the school newsletter. Be sure to include any online links for more information. Re-share this opportunity in a follow-up newsletter to ensure it is read.
Talk to other educators at the school about participating.
Compile a list of information with video links so that school community members have easy access to more information, including lesson plans.
Send an invitation to the activism opportunity and relevant info to teachers at other local schools.
Invite students in any relevant school clubs to participate (such as Eco or ‘Standing Up for Wildlife’).

Gail has also been a leader in her school district by offering a workshop, ‘Bringing Environmentalism into the Classroom’. She has participated in activism as an individual and encouraged students to do so as well. Gail has let politicians know that, “our children are despairing over the catastrophe of climate change and we must transition to a green economy now.” Gail notes that, “at this critical time in our world’s history, we have to inform everyone, and give people a say.” We couldn’t agree more that this includes our children and youth.

We hope to see some of these powerful drawings included in the official government compilation of the old-growth forest strategic review. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Brynne Morrice

Students are standing up for forests!

Students are standing up for old-growth!