The Kentucky Division of Forestry is working with the Clinton County School District and are in the early stages of building a Tree Trail behind the Clinton County Middle School.

Forestry Officer Scott Shadoan was working at the project site Friday clearing a path, which will later be covered in gravel, for students to be able to walk through the forest and pick out all the trees in the area.

Back in January, most of the trees along the tree trail had been marked and were awaiting labels and aging information for future classes.

Shadoan said this is going to be a great thing for kids now and for kids 10 years down the road.

“Each year they will be able to come back and they will see how much that tree has grown,” Shadoan said. “The kids, parents, everybody, will get to come out and see what each tree looks like, what the Latin name is, what we call it, and what it’s used for.”

Shadoan said right now he is constructing the trail that people will use to walk on. After the trail is complete, he will come back and cut the dangerous trees that may have been damaged by storms and have limbs that could fall.

“I will get out all the dangerous trees because we don’t want any falling on anybody,” Shadoan said. “We have already done a lot of it and a lot of it has fallen on its own. Once we cut all that out, it will be safe for the kids to come in and they will help. They will go to each tree, measure it, and the teacher will have the kids look it up, so there will be some learning aspect of it too.”

After all the cataloging is complete, then classes will be able to come back year after year and record the progress of each tree and students can witness new growth in the forest.

“They will get to learn a lot about different varieties of stuff,” Shadoan said. “There is also a natural drain in these woods. I’m going to build a log bridge over the top of it and students will get to see erosion over time. It will also show how the forest takes care of itself by dropping leaves and different branches, it’s trying to hold the soil back.”

Shadoan said he has been part of several tree trails across the state and this patch of woods behind the middle school has a lot to offer the students.

“The big thing is the kids are going to be able to identify the trees,” Shadoan said. “There are Cherry trees, Poplar trees, Maple trees, Beech, Sassafras … there is just a variety of different trees that are in here. I’ve done four or five of these across the state and everybody utilizes what we’ve done, the school brings it in … it’s a good thing.”

As far as money is concerned, Shadoan said it won’t cost the school system anything.

“One of the best things is it is not costing any money. The school already has the land. Taxpayers are paying me and the county road crew, the gravel has been donated, other businesses in town want to donate to this project … The kids are going to learn so much from this. If you can get one kid to go on to college and get into forestry, fish and wildlife or even science it will be worth it.”

Most of what is used on the trail has been donated. Shadoan said items, labor and money have been donated by Benny Brown’s Rock Pit, the Clinton County Judge/Executive’s office, the county road department, Foothills Academy, Clinton County Middle School students, Micky McFall and the Kentucky Division of Forestry.

“We could file for a grant, but it would take so long to get the money. What I’ve done is come in here and cut the road out and named the trees, the county road crew has spread the gravel, Benny Brown donated the gravel and Mickey (McFall) gave us permission to use the land,” Shadoan said. “They were going to log this out and just doze it down and make it a field and I got ahold of Mickey and said ‘hey, let’s make this an outdoor classroom for the kids.’ All these trees are in here and now they are going to be saved. In 20 years, this forest will be totally different because we’ve managed it.”

Managing the forest behind the middle school will allow students to see what Mother Nature can do. Many of the trees in the small patch of woods have been fighting for sunlight and have rare growing patterns that over time have made them grow sideways, crooked and have even been stunted due to the lack of sunlight.

“We are going to go in and bore them out with an increment borer and we will pull the cork out and count each ring so it will tell us exactly how old each tree is,” Shadoan said.

At the beginning of the trail, a Poplar tree is one of the first trees students will identify. Throughout the trail other Poplar trees will be on the trail, but they won’t look like the first one on the trail.

“That’s the thing, kids will see the first one and think all of the Poplar trees will look like that one, but they won’t,” Shadoan said. “They will get to hunt and find and learn about these trees.”

This project will not only benefit the students at the middle school right now, it will have lasting effects on future students who pass through the halls in years to come.

“The neatest thing is that this was done in Butler County about 10 years ago and students get to come back in and measure the trees and see which ones have lived, whether it shot straight up and grew another 50 feet or whether it’s put eight more inches around on it. It’s surprising to measure a tree and it’s grown four inches and you can actually see it.”

Shadoan said he will mark the trees with metal tags that will have a number. That number will be assigned to a tree with all the information about that tree at the time the tag was placed.

“It will be a neat thing for the kids to come out and see. They will get to touch the trees, look at it in the book, measure it, wrap their arms around it … it will be great for them,” Shadoan said.

Other than picking out trees and learning about the nature aspect of the forest, Shadoan said they can also learn about how many board feet is in each tree and figure out how much each tree is worth depending on the market price for the different types of wood.

Students will also be able to look at diseases and learn about the biology of the trees.

“There is one Maple that is giving off sap, it is coming out like syrup,” Shadoan said. “The kids will be excited to see that. There are a million different things the students will be able to take from this. I’ve got a little boy in the first grade and by the time he gets here this forest will be totally different. It will all be changed. It will be a managed forest.”

Forestry Ranger Scott Shadoan was busy last week clearing brush and undergrowth away from a new path that will serve as an outdoor classroom for Clinton County students, giving them a chance to learn more about nature and forestry. In the bottom photo, Shadoan worked with a group of students, seen in the background, digging post holes along the trail.