Lesson Overview: In this activity, students envision how they would like a wildland area to look in the future and how that might be achieved. First, they study photos and read articles that describe changes over the past 100 years in landscapes, fire regimes, fire management, and other issues. Then they create art work that shows their own vision of a future landscape, and they write an editorial explaining their vision and what should be done (or not done) to achieve it.

Lesson Goal: Students will understand that ecosystems change over time, sometimes due to changes in human needs and wants, and many forests from the northern Rocky Mountains to the North Cascades are now very different from past conditions. Students will be able to describe changes likely to occur in the future and how people’s actions may influence those changes.

Objectives:

• Students can identify the main points in articles about changes in wildlands and fire management and recognize the level of authority of the authors or interviewees.
• Students can examine photographs of landscapes taken over 50-100 years, envision a desirable future for that landscape, and describe how that future condition could be achieved.