Butternut school in southern Ashland County now has an outdoor classroom and school forest. Monte Stewart has the story.

Butternut is able to build this new classroom due to a grant provided by the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board. WEEB provided the school with $30,000 to help create the classroom and another $20,000 for time, labor and materials from the local community.

The small Butternut School district has been working on this for more than seven years.

Butternut Science Teacher Dawn Ertl says the school decided they needed this outdoor classroom after doing a needs survey. Ertl says they wanted to create environmental educational opportunities for students.

“A lot of the student’s parents are loggers, that type of thing, but some are not so you know what’s involved with logging, what’s involved with those kinds of components. They get more in touch with the area that they live in.”

Half of the building is made up of an enclosed 20 student classroom and the other half is an open pavilion. The building is located about a quarter mile from the school so teachers can have their classes walk there.

Ertl says it’s a great sense of accomplishment to have everything finished now.

“It was nice to see how the community came together to help make this project work. It took the community members and the staff and students in the building here at Butternut to put it all together and to make things happen.”

Ertl says they hope to give out live streaming videos of a trail camera in the school forest and another camera in a bird’s nest.

The building and trail are both open to the community.

210 of the state’s 424 public school districts have school forests. Butternut was one of six schools that were awarded a WEEB School Forestry grant in 2011.

• New "Mentor Superior" program hopes for 75 volunteers in 75 days - 5/19/2013
• Theater production showcases Washburn history - 5/18/2013
• Ceremony this weekend at Potato River will protest Penokee Mine - 5/17/2013
• Wildfire firefighters get thanks and some sleep too - 5/16/2013
• DNR issues air quality alert, weather service says rain may help wildfire situation this weekend - 5/15/2013