It\u2019s the perfect day to explore the Valley Floor. The sky is bright blue, the sun is warm, and the wind tussles the trees and grass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWho do you think owns the Valley Floor?\u201d asked Sarah Holbrooke, executive director of the Pinhead Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou?\u201d replied a group of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe all do, because the Town of Telluride bought the Valley Floor so nothing would be built on it. It would remain natural,\u201d Holbrooke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, kindergarteners through second graders tromped through the Valley Floor as part of the annual Valley Floor Education Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are five different stations that you\u2019ll be at today,\u201d Holbrooke said. \u201cThe first one is the pond, where you\u2019ll learn about all the weird things that live in the pond. The second station is the river, so you\u2019re going to learn a little bit about water flow and what lives in the river. The third station is snack!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Station four is the forest station, and station five is the willow station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pinhead Institute \u2014 a local STEM education nonprofit \u2014 hosts the day in collaboration with Sheep Mountain Alliance, the San Miguel Watershed Coalition, EcoAction Partners, and the Telluride Historical Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trang Pham, program manager at the Pinhead Institute, said she hopes the day inspires young people to be curious and observant of the land they live on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of times when the kids are just wandering, they might not know what they\u2019re looking at,\u201d Pham said. \u201cSo, to have experts to say \u2018Oh, that\u2019s a caddis fly you\u2019re touching right now,\u2019 to be able to understand the environment they see is great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over at the pond station, students discussed the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy name is Banks and I\u2019m in first grade,\u201d said Banks Carter, who was out on the Valley Floor with his class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said his favorite part had been learning about the bugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI got to see bugs and I got to learn about the ecosystem,\u201d Carter said. \u201cThere\u2019s a bunch of animals that live here and there\u2019s a lot of animals that like the Valley Floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Carter\u2019s father, Chris Carter, the hope is that spending time on the Valley Floor will help instill the importance of taking care of the natural world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have three boys and one of the things I teach them that my job is, is to provide, protect, and prepare them for their future,\u201d Chris Carter said. \u201cWhen I think about what we need to do for the environment, we need to teach them to do the same. They need to be good providers, protectors, and prepare the environment \u2014 leave places better than they found them at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the willow section, representatives from the Telluride Historical Museum spoke about the original stewards of the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNative Americans, specifically the Ute people, were the people who lived on the Valley Floor and all around the region,\u201d said Charlotte Lynch, with the Telluride Historical Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nestled back in the forest, Ruthie Boyd, program director for Sheep Mountain Alliance, said she hopes the day brings wonder and curiosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it just fosters curiosity and care for the places they\u2019re growing up,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cI can only hope it turns them into climate activists or environmentalists in whatever way that looks to them, and inspires joy and belonging of this home in Telluride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Valley Floor is approximately 570 acres of land at the entrance of Telluride. It was placed in a conservation easement in 2009 to be permanently protected as open space.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kindergarten through second-grade students in Telluride spent a day exploring the Valley Floor as part of the annual Education Day. Led by local nonprofits, the outdoor event featured hands-on STEM learning, environmental science, and lessons about the region\u2019s history and ecology \u2014 inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":4474,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"news-category":[514],"news-tag":[830,833,831,477,828],"class_list":["post-4465","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-category-featured-stories","news-tag-education-day","news-tag-outdoor-education","news-tag-stem-learning","news-tag-telluride","news-tag-valley-floor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n