Upcoming fall courses offered through Sleeping Bear Folk & Field School aim to teach traditional skills and crafts via handson learning during one of the most scenic times of the year.
The first program this fall, “Trees of Change: How Pioneers Transformed the Port Oneida Woods,” is set for Saturday, Oct. 10 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., and will give participants a chance to join in on a hike along Bay View Trail at the historic Port Oneida Schoolhouse. Participants will learn how early settlers transformed the landscape from native forests into fields, pastures, and homesteads, as well as how the forest continued to shape daily life. It will also examine how European settlement involved taking over landscapes that Indigenous communities had already actively shaped and managed for hundreds of years. The session will discuss the transition from forests to farming, the challenges of working with poor, sandy soils, and the plants settlers brought with them.
“Not only do we have those hands-on work classes, we’re going to implement the field portion, so that’s going to be a little more of the hikes and hopefully, in the future, other different things that go along with that… We have two really talented instructors that were in the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) conservation field, so some really talented ladies this weekend for that and we’re excited,” said Kaitlyn Springsdorf, Sleeping Bear Forever events and program coordinator.
