Only so much can be learned in a classroom.

Last year, the Columbia Springs Environmental Education Center and At Home At School (AHAS) were awarded a Washington State Parks and Recreation grant of $45,550, as part of the No Child Left Inside program. AHAS Outdoors was born with the mission to provide outdoor explorations to students who normally would not have the opportunities.

On April 25, 17 AHAS kids visited Hyla Woods, a Forest Stewardship Council-certified forest on top of Mt. Richmond, outside of Gaston, Ore. There they assisted in environmental investigation, enjoyed transcendental moments and learned about responsible, eco-friendly tree harvesting and milling.

“I was surprised how many activities there was,” said Mercedes Zeller. “My favorite part was seeing the guy chop the tree down.”

The students stood by as Peter Hayes, a fourth generation logger and president of Hyla Woods, cut down a 30-foot-plus tree. He sectioned off a log for a few kids to haul to the nearby portable mill, and then watched as Hayes milled a three-by-three board. From standing tree to finished board, the process took just 30 minutes.

The board was then loaded on the bus to take home. It will be used in construction of the SWIFT Outdoor Classroom, the county’s first green outdoor classroom to be built by AHAS youth and volunteers, along with Columbian Springs and Project Green Build, a local non-profit with a stake in spreading green building methods in SW Washington. The classroom will be built this summer using an ancient building technique called cordwood masonry and will serve 75,000 students annually at Columbia Springs.

At Hyla Woods, the students explored the terrain, finding “clues” to help figure out the forest’s past. The forest was owned by an Oklahoma family escaping from the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

“The family used the land to make what they could then left,” Hayes told the kids. “What we are doing now is trying to grow the forest healthier and healthier, and to make enough for a living.”

Hayes tracks every aspect of the forest, from the birds to the “invisible forest below.” Most of the logging at Hyla Woods is selective cutting. Before the tree hits the ground, Hayes usually knows how the logs are going to be used. The wood is dried using a naturally-heated kiln. Nothing goes to waste — scraps are turned to firewood, shavings and dust go to schools, etc.

“It’s not plantation foresting,” Hayes said. “We need lots of forests.”

“This guy, he manages on an ecosystem basis … a holistic approach … where at a plantation farm, they focus on just the wood,” said Ted Stubblefield, chair of the property committee for the Columbia Springs Board of Directors, who was along for the trip.

“The best part for me was wandering through the woods,” said Cody Hacker, another student on the trip. “You get to see different, cool stuff.”

AHAS, directed by Washington State University Vancouver Education Professor Susan Finley, serves K-12 students from low-income families, transitional homes and who are homeless. The crux of AHAS is the summer program, which enrolled 314 kids last year. AHAS doubles as field teaching courses and lab school for WSUV students.

On the field trip to Hyla Woods, the last one funded by the No Child Left Indoors grant, it was evident the kids’ knowledge of the outdoors was ahead of what would be expected. They used natural buzzwords many adults wouldn’t know and understood the bigger picture ecosystem-focus. Zeller and Ally Raulenson both said they enjoyed the final activity, a 10-minute quiet reflection period.

“It was really peaceful, looking up and listening to the wind go through the trees,” Zeller said.

“It was nice to get away from home for a day, to get out and do something different,” Raulenson said.