Students of the Frances Kelsey Secondary School program ‘Beyond ‘Outdoor Education’ have become trailblazers as they creep up to completing their new build on the longest section of Snake Trail, a popular black diamond single track connector trail located on Cobble Hill Mountain.
“It feels really great to finish a trail which has been planned for over five years,” said program coordinator Brad Niessen. “We’ve explored and surveyed the area countless times, visualizing the plan, so it’s great to see it nearing completion.”
Niessen gives credit to former FKSS principal, and Geography and Social Studies teacher Jeff Rowan who now works with SD79 as the assistant superintendent of communications and community relations, and to former FKSS student, and the Parks Planning Technician — Trails with CVRD for bringing the idea to the table in the spring of 2017.
“I was looking for ways to have students apply their learning in the real world,” said Rowan. “I met with Dan Brown from CVRD, and Shawn Karr from the Malahat Nation to talk about opportunities to have our students use the lands as a classroom. In the discussion we came up with the idea of applying lessons on soils, vegetation and biomes in Geography to building trails. The best fit was with the CVRD lands as this worked into the CVRD plans for refurbishing and building new trails on Cobble Hill Mountain so we worked out the logistics of equipment, and travel and created the program.”
“Needless to say, we were definitely interested once we were offered the opportunity,” said Niessen. “From the very beginning, it has been a very fruitful partnership between the CVRD and Frances Kelsey Secondary School.”
According to Rowan, the program started in 2017 with just one class of 25 students in Grade 12 who were gently nudged into it. The opportunity to learn in the great outdoors grew substantially in popularity and by 2019 Beyond Outdoor Education consisted of seven classes with more than 180 students ranging from Grades 10 through 12 signed up.
“Those numbers told us that the students wanted that type of program and were excited to be a part of it,” said Rowan. “The CVRD was an important partner, as in the beginning, Dan would come and plan with the teachers in the fall and then present to the students in the spring when the program was running. Ever since, the CVRD and the FKSS teachers work together to plan where new trails will go and determine which trails are being refurbished in the fall. The CVRD gives the school access to the trails and directions, while the school organizes busing to the site, equipment, and plans all of the lessons.”
Rowan, who has been an educator in the Cowichan Valley since 1995, has always been passionate about this kind of learning for students and over the span of his career has worn many hats including teacher, vice-principal, and principal at schools other than FKSS such as Quamichan School, Cowichan Secondary, and Lake Cowichan School. After an impressive teaching career that included 23 years at Bonner Middle School, and 11 years at Frances Kelsey Niessen retires this year and while it is bittersweet he finds comfort in leaving behind a legacy of kilometres of reconditioned and new-build trail at both Cobble Hill and Polara Hill. Niessen has been coordinating this program since its inception six years ago alongside fellow Outdoor Education teacher Jeremy Hart, who has been an educator for 25 years and with FKSS for 21 years. Hart has consistently been with the program since 2019 once numbers increased.
“As a Social Studies teacher, I want to help students become responsible, engaged citizens that are committed to the well-being of their community as much as to themselves,” said Hart. “This program is great in that it gets kids outside, working on something for the community. We have had a number of students go on to study in geography and environmental science, and in talking with those students later, they reflect on how important their experience with us was. That is amazing for me, as those students have taken it all the way. I know they are not all going to do that, but I think all students learn a lot about themselves and how they relate to the environment and their community, and those are really important things.”
The program quickly became a popular option for students during the pandemic, and while at one time it had as many as seven instructors, it now sits at four with teachers Rick Groicher, and Adam Johnston also within the ranks.
“I feel that we all share the leadership role equally in the program,” said Niessen. “It feels great to share in the success of the program with the three other teachers, and the students who choose to be in it.”
Under the tutelage of these four teachers dedicated Frances Kelsey students have really dug in, putting in thousands of hours of hard work into the recreational trail and area. Trail-building can involve a myriad of things from engineering bedrock out, to digging benches into the soil. Students will move tons of soil from borrow pits as well as collecting limestone and buckets of moss to help fill in areas of the trail where needed. Niessen said that even deadwood can be used as the idea is to create what the trail was, knowing that you disturbed it in the first place.
“You always make the trail a little wider when you build the corridor and then decide in the end where it will precisely go, and then make it look like the rest of the terrain,” said Niessen. “Moss is the best ground cover for that because with the rain we’ve been having this moss will continue to live, and it looks like we’ve only been in certain areas.”
The planning for the rebuild on Snake Trail, which is part of the 25 km network of trails managed by the CVRD, began five years ago, and there is a due process that needs to be followed with the regional district before any work can be done. According to CVRD Trails Technician Sarah Butterfield a number of staff within the Parks and Trails Division with CVRD has been involved with collaborating with FKSS teachers over the years in developing the trail work as part of the school's outdoor program, formerly known as the Streams and Trails program.
"The focus has been on involvement of students in the program with hands-on experience in making improvements to the trail network within the Cobble Hill Mountain Regional Recreation Area, which the CVRD manages under a long term agreement with the province," said Butterfield. "The trail work done by the students has contributed to enhancing the user experience and improving the year-round sustainability and maintenance of the multi-use trail network within the Cobble Hill Mountain Regional Recreation Area."
According to Butterfield the annual trail work is planned out in advance between the CVRD and the school to meet the program’s curriculum objectives for the year and to ensure that the amount of student time available is matched with the ability to complete the project in accordance with the CVRD’s trail standards/maintenance specifications and the parks volunteer program’s guidelines and requirements.
"FKSS students and teachers alike have made a lasting impact to the trail users and on the trails within the Cobble Hill Mountain Regional Recreation Area through their program," said Butterfield. "The contributions made through the school have also been a highlight of the CVRD's parks volunteer program for many years."
Students and their teachers have been actively working on the lengthy Snake section since the spring of 2023. Niessen said there are 90 students ranging from Grade 10 to 12 in this year's program and the goal is to complete the section they have been working on a few days a week by the end of June. Grade 10 students Dax Wiencki, and Harrison Nguyen who are in their first year of the program are having a blast in this program.
“It’s really fun to be outside and build stuff,” said Wiencki.
“Being outdoors and working with others on this trail-building has been pretty awesome,” said Nguyen. “One of my favourite parts of this experience has been meeting new people and making new friends.”
This is not the only area where students and their leaders have been getting their hands dirty. Niessen said they have been maintaining and building trails on Cobble Hill Mountain and the adjacent Polara Hill every year since 2018. Other trails that students have built or significantly updated include Turtle, Squirrel, Wolf, Owl, Raccoon, Raven and Loggers Lane trails, which have made a world of difference to recreation enthusiasts in their community. Niessen said a big part of the trail-building experience has been considering the trail users, whether that's hikers, dog walkers, or even someone on horseback, and what would make them happy.
“Giving back to the community is the most important outcome,” said Niessen. “We are proud of what our students and teachers have accomplished in the past seven years and every year the results improve. Ultimately, it comes back to the contribution our students are making to the community in a permanent way.”
Trail building is just one component of the school’s broader Beyond Outdoor Education program that also includes hiking, orienteering, and disc golfing — in fact students of the program also designed and built a a disc golf course on the Frances Kelsey campus that has become well-used by the entire community. There is also an academic component that relates to the outdoor portion of the program. Niessen said every student earns credits in senior level Social Studies courses, including First Peoples 12, Geography 12 and Urban Studies 12, along with the P.E. credits for the outdoor activities. He noted that this is not by definition an ‘Academy’ within the school, as it is available and free of any costs to any and all Grade 10-12 students.
“This program has had a great impact as students not only see the relevance in learning about soils, slopes, erosion and vegetation, but also about environmentally sustainable recreation and the mental health benefits of being outdoors in the woods,” said Rowan.
“I hope our students feel the value of their hard work,” said Hart. “As they work on the trails, they make themselves stronger and make the community stronger too. What strikes me from year to year, is how many kids don’t get the chance to work and play in nature in their day to day lives. The group we have this year includes a number of kids with outdoor experience, and it is noticeable with the progress we have made on the trail.”
“So much of what we accomplish in school is never really seen or experienced by our local community," said Niessen. "What we are doing in Outdoor Education directly benefits both our local community and visitors to the area. Anecdotally, we’ve received messages from dozens of parents and grandparents who have been guided by their children to see the trails that we’ve been building.”
