Students Begin Research Project at Big Springs

PINETOP-LAKESIDE - Hiking the trails from Big Springs along Walnut Creek to Woodland Lake was the assignment in Connie Mayo's language arts class on Friday, Oct. 2.

There were about 60 seventh and eighth grade Blue Ridge Junior High students who participated in the field trip.
Before the hike students were asked to record their opinions about the possible sale of the park acreage. The students spent the morning hiking from Big Springs to Woodland Park where they ate sack lunches.
After lunch, the students participated in volleyball, soccer, kickball, touch football, Frisbee throwing or just walking around the lake.
The purpose of the hike was to explore the vast resource of parkland located in the center of Pinetop-Lakeside.
During the next nine weeks students will learn how this land was acquired and became Woodland Lake Park and Big Springs Environmental Study Area.
Students will research the Secure Rural Schools Initiative 2000 to see how and why this area could be sold by the U.S. Forest Service for development and the impact this could have upon the community.
After students have researched these things and written a research paper, then they will write persuasive letters to Arizona congressmen or senators expressing their views about the possible sale of this acreage.
Each student will select the legislator who will receive his or her letter. The students are expected to form their opinions independently based on their personal research project. The research project is designed to fulfill language arts requirements for Arizona State Standards. "I hope this will also get the students more involved with their communities and its government as they mature and become young adult citizens. It will be interesting to see how their horizons broaden through this project," Mayo said.

This is not the kind of post to make you jump and shout; it is an example of the Feds vs the locals.

In the center of Pinteop-Lakeside, AZ, there is an enclave of National Forest land on which exist several wonderful community assets: a lake, some wooded areas, and an active spring that exhibits several active ecosystems. For years, the lake has been used as a community rendezvous point, with picnic areas and athletic fields; and the Big Springs area has been called the "Outdoor Classroom", where students from all grade levels can hike a half-mile on a nice day and study nature. The town and school district have been trying for years to get the Feds to either cede the land to the community, or to offer it at a decent price. The Feds have refused, instead threatening several times in the past to sell the assets to developers unless the community can come up with $50 million or some unaffordable amount.

Here is a perfect example of an opportunity for the federal government to serve the interests of the people at the local level; but no-o-o-o-o-o-o (you get the idea).

So from your standpoint, I shouldn’t have posted this.

My point is that the federal land is an enclave, inside the city limits. It is already developed by the community under long-term leases from the past. Selling to developers would mean tearing out the community recreation areas and turning them into lakeside condos and areas that no one could use but the owners. I mean, fair is fair.

Very conservative of you, though. I’ll give you that.

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