Students in David Henderson’s America’s Wilderness Ethics and Aesthetics class had the chance to experience a real world problem-solution environment.
Ten students from Henderson’s class piled into two vans and traveled to Brevard for the Pisgah Ranger District meeting. The meeting takes place in a series of Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest meetings set to revise the current management plan.
“I’m interested in the outdoors and just though it would be interesting seeing how everything is managed and taken care of,” said student Clay Hudson.
“In the class we talk a lot about how different values get expressed in land use and how decisions get made for preserving and protecting this or using that and debates between them, so I thought it would make it real, make it live for them to see the decisions being made,” said Henderson.
Those who attended had the chance to leave input for the assessment phase of the revision and have their voices heard.
“I thought it would be interesting. I figured it would be nice to know what’s going on and see if I could help,” said student and Brevard native Emily Williams.
According to Henderson, he received positive feedback and high levels of engagement from the students.
