LINCOLN -- Lincoln School students got to explore and play Tuesday in their new children's forest.

Named Nature's Playground by the children, the 28-acre forest has been a work in progress over the past three years.

Created through a partnership of the U.S. Forest Service, Lincoln School District, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the school's PTA, it's both an outdoor classroom and a place to just enjoy.

Tuesday was one of the first warm spring days for students to go exploring in their forest.

Fifth- and sixth-graders -- bearing logger tapes, clipboards, increment borers and clinometers -- got a close-up look at the trees around them. They were learning how to collect data to monitor their forest in coming years.

Trail construction was also under way, as the high school wildlife biology class and local fire crew took Pulaskis in hand, building the first one-mile loop trail in the forest.

"The goal is not only to have the forest be an extension of the classroom, but to involve the community," said Lincoln District Ranger Amber Kamps, who led one of the teams of students.

The four lively fifth-graders learned how to set up a plot in the forest, identify trees and record their location, size and health.

This was Chaz Cox's fourth visit to the forest.

On previous trips he'd learned to count tree rings and had found antlers.

"It's a shared vision for all of us -- bringing the kids into the forest, having them develop a connection to the land, learning how natural ecosystems work and how you manage them," said Kamps.

Lincoln children get to meet their forest at a very young age, in kindergarten. As they grow up and move through school, they'll measure forest changes.

They'll also learn about options for managing it to provide "the wisest and best use of the land," Kamps said.

"In the future, we'd like students incorporated in the management decisions -- not just recreational decisions."

Someday they will help decide whether fire should be used to manage the landscape, she said, or the best way to treat a bug infestation.

Nature's Playground is about more than the kids, she added. She hopes it will also grow a connection between local people and their forest.

"I truly believe in community-based resource management," said Kamps, "local solutions for local problems."

Future plans include students designing and building interpretive signs.

And, if fundraising is successful, a park shelter will be built -- a ground-level replica of the historic Silver King Lookout, which burned in the 2003 Lincoln fires.

Teachers, such as Alyssa Daniels, welcome the opportunity the forest brings. Students have been planning and sketching what they want in the forest, designing and building signs, and identifying trees and weeds.

"Later, I'm going to bring the students out to do journaling -- they'll sketch what they see and describe what they hear -- just to experience some quiet time."

She's also planning student hikes here, and will use the new trail for Junior Governor's Cup training.

It could also be a hands-on way for them to learn about their local economy. Students could identify a few trees that can be turned into timber. They would then get to see a local mill turn it into a product, giving them a close-up look at the economics of value-added products.

For wilderness ranger Casey Burns, the forest offers kids a chance to be in the woods for those who otherwise don't get the opportunity to go into the backcountry.

The high school wildlife class used GPS to plan the trail and identify sites for future interpretive signs. They also learned to use ArcView to create a trail map.

"I think they'll have more feeling for it after they put some sweat into it," said wildlife biology teacher George Pierce, who was working side by side with his student trail crew.

"Well I don't think you can put a specific value on the forest," said Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Kathy Heisler. "It's just going to be a tremendous asset for the community.

"The kids can take a walk and explore their forest.

"It just gives them ownership and perspective for future forest management and being a forest steward for the next generation.

"That's how we billed it -- it's their forest, so kids feel ownership of it.

"We were tying it all together," Heisler said, "healthy forest, healthy youth, healthy community."

Reporter Marga Lincoln: 447-4074 or marga.lincoln@helenair.com