Redwoods League grant again sends 4th-graders to park, beach

Elementary fourth-graders will again trek through the redwoods and squish sand between their toes at the beach thanks to a $1,500 grant from the Save the Redwoods League.

This will be the sixth year that about 60 students make a grant-paid field trip to Big Basin State Park and the beach, where they will study the science of the redwoods, write informational, poetic and narrative pieces about what they experienced, and create art.

“In addition to learning about the redwood ecosystem, we are able to take a side trip to Natural Bridges State Beach and witness one of the great migrations: the Western monarch butterflies,” said fourth grade teacher Karen Retford, who was instrumental in writing the grant. “We even get a bonus of meeting the Pacific Ocean. Many of the students have never experienced any of these wonders of California.

“This year we will incorporate our study of structure and be able to see up close how these trees are able to use these structures to become the largest living trees on our planet.”

Big Basin State Park, California’s first state park established in 1902, includes 18,000 acres of old growth and recovering redwood forest and is the largest continuous stand of ancient coast redwoods south of San Francisco.

This story was originally published November 1, 2014 at 4:21 PM with the headline "Redwoods League grant again sends 4th-graders to park, beach."