New Program Turns Campers Into ‘Ecology Engineers’

Ecology Engineers' campers learned about prescribed burns and fire ecology.

It's official: Summer 2024 will go down in history for Camp Fire Central Oregon as the season with the most summer camps we've ever offered. But it’s also the first summer for a new program, Ecology Engineers—a super fun, high-impact STEM-focused camp offering a blend of robotics, ecology, engineering and more. Planned by Logan Betts, STEM program coordinator, this new camp ignited loads of excitement from the get-go, even well before it launched.

STEM Program Coordinator Logan Betts shares how pine cone seeds help regenerate forests.

“The excitement surrounding this program certainly lived up to the hype because the week of ecology engineers was my favorite all summer, and the kids just loved it!” Betts says.

“Planning this summer program was something that I've been working on for a while now, and I truly believe we pulled off an exciting, informative week filled with robotics, fire ecology knowledge, and so many fun field trips and activities.”

The week kicked off with an introduction to LEGO® robotics workshop, then a field trip to a former wildfire site in La Pine, where campers explored the site and learned about the mystery of fire and the signs of wildfire, both in nature and in their own back yards.

Campers learned about trees, the mystery of fire, forest health and down woody debris in Ecology Engineers.

Tuesday offered LEGO® robotics coding, plus a field trip to Tumalo State Park to learn about tree adaptations, plus why the Ponderosa Pine is healthier for our high desert environment than Juniper trees.

On Wednesday, campers traveled to the Cascade Lakes Welcome Station, where they met with Emily Curtis, Wildland Fire Educator Coordinator from Discover Your Forest. Emily taught the kids that wildland firefighters look for lots of down woody debris when determining if an area is ready for a prescribed burn. The campers then designed robots that could help collect down woody debris in a future prescribed clean-up robotics mission.

Thursday featured more fun, meeting up with another community partner, Jeannie, a naturalist guide from Wanderlust Tours. Jeannie met the campers at a site near Paulina Lake that was former prescribed burn.

“She taught us about what the forest looks like after a fire,” Betts says. “And we learned about how life starts to return to the forests after a fire and saw some of the Ponderosa Pines adaptations in action. We also began coding our robotic designs to collect down woody debris!”

Kids watch a demonstration that mimics fire behavior and scenarios.

Friday wrapped up camp with a super cool activity called matchstick forests, whereby campers simulated wildfires happening in a forest, mimicking different scenarios that happen in nature, such as fire burning upslope versus downslope, or fire burning in an area that has received prescribed fire versus an area with a lot of down woody debris.

“They had a blast doing this activity, and it was a great way to safely visualize everything we had talked about earlier in the week,” Betts says. “We got to close out the day and week celebrating the one-and-only Smokey Bear for his 80th birthday and talking about prevention and careers in the fire ecology field. It was the perfect way to end the week…we had the most amazing time and can't wait to hopefully plan more ecology engineer camps!”

Ecology Engineers kiddos pause for a group picture!