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Fall 2005

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Table of Contents

From the Publisher's Desk
Creation-care and the Atmosphere by Henry Hengeveld
Renewable Energy: A Solution to Climate Change by Andy Aden, Lynn Billman, Jim Green, and Brent Nelson
You Found Our Trail, Didn't Ya? by Fred Wiechmann
In the beginning, wilderness (*) by Michael Crook

(*) Full text not available online

From the Publisher's Desk

Our theme for this issue is Renewing the Future. How can you renew something that hasn't happened yet? Ah, here is one of the benefits of getting a Ph.D. in theology. (Believe me, there aren't that many, so I have to take advantage of these opportunities!) You see, as theologians, we deal in higher order mysteries that are beyond the comprehension of mere human rationality. Frankly, we don't have to trifle with rational consistency.

Are you falling for this? Not really? Ok, the real reason for the title being Renewing the Future is that we thought it sounded catchy and might make you want to know what we were talking about.

So what are we talking about? A major focus of this issue is on the potential of renewable energy and how it can help us address global warming and create a better future, thereby renewing our hope in the future.

This past August I attended the annual conference of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA), one of EEN's Partner organizations. The theme of the conference was on renewable energy and the environment. Numerous papers were presented by individuals who work at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) located in Golden, Colorado near Denver. (Indeed, there are a significant number of Christians that work there who participate in a regular Bible Study - on their own time, of course. These Christians at NREL, along with their co-workers, are doing God's work by helping to create the renewable energy technologies that will provide the clean energy necessary for our future.)

I thought it would be helpful for you, our reader, to be aware of the status of these renewable energy technologies and their potential for renewing our hope in a clean-energy future. So I asked several authors to revise their ASA papers for publication in Creation Care. They wanted their article to be a collective effort highlighting solar, biomass, and wind energy technologies. And that is what we have for you beginning on page six. It's a little technical at points (hey, these experts are scientists and engineers, after all), but well worth the effort. Their article is preceded by one by Henry Hengeveld, who reflects upon the atmosphere as part of the "creation capital" God has entrusted to us.

After that, enjoy Fred Wiechmann's light-hearted story about some mischievous fifth-grade boys who made a trail and camp where they weren't supposed to, but ended up enjoying the wonders of God's creation almost by accident.

Finally, Michael Crook's devotion on Genesis 1 reminds us that light and wind are not just sources for clean renewable energy; they are also sources for spiritual reflection - as is all of God's incredible creation.

Jim Ball

Creation-care and the Atmosphere

Henry Hengeveld

Various Scripture passages (e.g., Genesis 1:31, Isaiah 45:18, Psalm 8, Psalm 19) remind us that God created the cosmos and everything within it for a purpose - to reveal his incomprehensible power and majesty and to praise him and adore him. Perhaps most significant for us is that they tell us that he placed us on Earth as his regents to govern 'over all things', and commanded us to take care of 'everything' he has made. That is our original mandate, and we fulfill it as an expression of love for Him (the first great commandment). After all, God loves his creation and all living things within in (see, for example, his covenant with Noah in Genesis 9).

However, God has also commanded that we love our neighbor as ourselves. In today's world, broken and scarred with the wages of sin, that has become a real challenge. Access to adequate food supply, clean air and clean water, protection against toxics and diseases - and affordable energy - have become key aspects of this challenge. How can we both honor our earth keeping mandate and provide our neighbor with affordable resources, particularly energy?

One approach to resolving this dilemma is to regard the unique attributes of God's creation that support life on Earth as "creation capital." As his stewards, we invest and manage this capital in such a way that we raise and use its "interest" to help serve our neighbor and ourselves, while preserving - or even enhancing - the capital that honors and praises the Creator. A vital part of "creation capital" is the atmosphere.

The Earth's relatively thin atmosphere contains enough oxygen to abundantly support life on the Earth's surface, but not so much that the earth's vegetation becomes too flammable. The lower tropospheric part of the atmosphere contains very little ozone (which is toxic to humans and plants) but the stratosphere above it contains enough ozone to effectively absorb ecologically harmful UV radiation from the sun. The atmosphere is also dynamic, with a hydrological cycle that moves water from oceans and lakes to land areas, providing essential moisture to land-based ecosystem. Finally, the Earth's atmosphere provides a natural "greenhouse effect" that helps to maintain a relatively stable surface climate suitable for life. All of these are among the important aspects of the Earth's atmosphere that are needed to support life, and hence part of the creation capital God has given us to manage. None of these are known to exist on any other planet.

Humans have begun to significantly alter these unique life support attributes of the atmosphere by releasing large volumes of particulate matter and gases into the atmosphere, including some that are highly toxic. For some of these substances, emission control measures have substantially reduced their atmospheric concentrations. For example, measures taken under the Montreal Protocol on ozone depleting substances have successfully curtailed the decline in the abundance of stratospheric ozone. Likewise, controls on a number of toxic substances (such as lead in gasoline) have helped to cause a dramatic decline in their atmospheric concentrations, reducing their threat to human health. For others substances, however, much more needs to be done. These include:

• Rising greenhouse gas concentrations. During the last 200 years, the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased rapidly, primarily due to the emissions from the combustion of fossilized carbon in coal, oil and natural gas. North Americans are amongst the primary contributors to their rise, with their per capita emissions being about twice that of Europeans and ten times that of the developing world.

• Smog. The combination of the release of ozone producing gases and fine aerosols from cars and smokestacks are continuing to create a pervasive blanket of smog across many industrialized regions of the world, including those of North America.

• Acid rain. Despite measures to reduce sulfate emissions, experts indicate that further reductions in sulfur and nitrogen emissions are needed before lakes in the most vulnerable boreal regions of eastern North America can fully recover.

We need to find a way to balance the essential need for energy resources for humanity while still caring for creation, to be good stewards of the "creation capital" God has entrusted to us. Renewable energy technologies offer a way to strike this balance.

Editors Note: Henry Hengeveld recently retired as a senior expert on climate change for the government of Canada. He is also a member of the American Scientific Affiliation, an EEN Partner.

Renewable Energy: A Solution to Climate Change

Andy Aden, Lynn Billman, Jim Green, and Brent Nelson

When the oil crisis hit in the 1970s, the political outcry in the United States led to the establishment of the Solar Energy Research Institute (now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)-a federal laboratory in Golden, Colorado, dedicated to developing the science and technology of meeting our energy needs through renewable energy. Today, the sticker shock at the gasoline pump is raising yet another outcry from the public. But despite how difficult this situation may seem right now, it pales in comparison to the problems that future generations will face from potentially devastating changes in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide levels began increasing in the 1800s with the onset of the Industrial Age and continue unabated. The first step in changing this far-reaching situation is to better understand the complex interactions involved. Then we can decide what the best actions we should take are.

Scientists do not know exactly what concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) the earth can tolerate without drastically affecting weather systems, ocean levels, agriculture, and our entire lifestyle. The pre-industrial level of CO₂ was about 280 parts per million (ppm), whereas today's level is about 368 ppm. Can we tolerate 550 ppm CO₂, which might result in an additional temperature rise of 2-3 degrees Centigrade? Or 750 ppm, with perhaps a 3-4 degree Centigrade rise? Even if we are not sure of the answer, climate and energy analysts can still study what changes in energy use will be required to stabilize the atmosphere at these hypothetical levels.

Analysts have established an often-accepted "innovation-as-usual" base case to calculate how much energy the world will need over the next 100 years and to predict resultant CO₂ concentrations. This somewhat optimistic base case assumes a steady increase in both energy efficiency and the percentage of carbon-neutral fuels in our fuel mix, since all analysts agree we will need to decrease our energy consumption per capita and use less carbon-containing fuels or sequester the carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, calculations show that the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere under these conditions will continue to go up and up and up-an unacceptable solution.

What can be done? As many answers exist as there are scientists and engineers studying the problem. At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, we work to improve the performance and lower the cost of technologies that produce electricity and fuels (including hydrogen) from renewable sources. These energy sources-including solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal-are carbon-neutral, which means that they do not release CO₂ into the atmosphere in the process of producing energy. (Note that this is true even of biomass. Although biomass gives off CO₂ when burned or when converted to ethanol and used in fuel blends, it removes just as much CO₂ from the atmosphere while it is growing.)

If the "innovation-as-usual" assumptions about energy use will not stabilize atmospheric CO₂ at 550 ppm or 750 ppm, then how much carbon-neutral energy do we need to be using? This is the "carbon-neutral gap" we need to fill with renewable energy, nuclear, or some carbon-neutral fossil fuel system that locks up or sequesters CO₂ forever somewhere.

In projecting the potential role of renewable energy in filling this carbon-neutral gap, we have assumed the following: (1) nuclear power plants will be severely restricted by concerns about safety and spent fuel disposal, and (2) only a modest amount of additional hydropower resources may be tapped in developing countries in the next hundred years. This still leaves a tremendous gap to be filled by renewable sources if we are to stabilize atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. For example, to stabilize the atmosphere at 550 ppm CO₂, nearly 50% of the world's primary energy will have to come from renewable sources by 2050. Even more difficult in the near term, about 19% of our energy would have to come from renewables by 2010. To put this in perspective, in 2003, only 8%-10% of the world's energy came from renewables. Increasing that level to 19% in just a few years would require adding one very large (about 900-megawatt) renewables-based power plant every day of the year for many years to come.

A market penetration pattern of 10% renewables in 2010, 20% in 2020, and 30% in 2030-a "10/20/30%" target-will not restrict CO₂ concentrations to as low as 550 ppm, but should keep them well below 750 ppm. As heated debates about energy policy rage around the world today, this rational target is easy to understand and remember.

The annual growth rates required for solar, wind, and biomass technologies may seem daunting to achieve the 10/20/30% target. But today's growth rates in the real-world marketplace suggest that they may indeed be achievable.

The following discussions about solar, biomass, and wind provide a brief introduction to the key advantages and challenges we face in moving toward that 10/20/30% goal today.

Solar Energy

Every hour, more solar energy reaches the earth than the entire world's population consumes in a year by all energy sources. Of course, that energy is distributed over a very large area. On a sunny day, about a kilowatt of power hits a square meter of the earth's surface, with somewhat more near the equator and dropping off going toward either pole. Solar is therefore a distributed resource, available to all nations and able to generate power close to where it is consumed. This distributed nature makes it less prone to terrorism relative to centralized power plants and creates large numbers of local jobs associated with installing and maintaining systems. And solar energy is quiet and clean.

We use solar power in many ways, including daylighting, passive solar (using sun spaces or Trombe walls), solar hot water for domestic hot water or space heating. Concentrated solar power consists of large-scale installations of parabolic troughs, dish/engine systems, or power towers. None of these systems are rooftop-type installations, but rather, are extensive arrays in very sunny locations where they use solar heat to create the large temperature differences necessary to generate electricity. In many sites, concentrated solar power is economically competitive with conventional electricity sources. Finally, photovoltaic or solar-electric devices convert sunlight directly to electricity, as discussed below.

The basic building block of a photovoltaic (PV) system is the solar cell, which consists of semiconductor materials, as well as electrical contacts, antireflection coatings, back covers or substrates, and front covers or encapsulants. Light enters the semiconducting materials and generates both a photo-voltage and electrical current, acting very much like a battery. In fact, the first solar cells developed by Bell Laboratories 50 years ago were called solar batteries. Several dozen cells are assembled into a module, and a dozen or fewer modules are assembled into an array. A PV system can consist of one module to many arrays and incorporates power-conditioning components such as storage devices, voltage regulators, and DC-to-AC inverters. These arrays-known as flat panels-can be mounted in fixed frames or on tracking structures that point the PV arrays directly toward the sun. Some modules are incorporated directly into buildings, thus providing a savings on the expense of support structures. Using this building-integrated PV technology, architects are increasingly incorporating this solar power source into their building designs. In the last few years, however, large array installations for power generation, which are intended to deliver electricity to the power grid, have exceeded stand-alone installations, which is where the power is used "on site."

The material and structure of the semiconductor materials in the solar cell identifies the PV type. Almost all of the commercially available PV cells are made from silicon. Silicon is the second most abundant material in the earth's crust and is therefore available in virtually inexhaustible quantities. The silicon atoms can be arranged into a PV semiconductor in one of three ways. Single-crystal silicon wafers are made from a carefully grown single crystal-the same material and structure from which computer chips are made. Multicrystalline silicon wafers comprise many individual crystalline grains large enough to be visible to the human eye; these wafers are either sawn from a block or pulled out of molten silicon directly into ribbons of silicon. In amorphous silicon, thin layers of silicon with randomly oriented atoms are alloyed with hydrogen. Amorphous silicon can be much thinner than its crystalline counterparts and less expensive to manufacture; however, it is less efficient at converting solar energy into electricity.

Polycrystalline semiconductors other than silicon can also be used in very thin films, but they currently lag behind silicon in the marketplace. More complex and expensive cells based on higher-efficiency materials such as gallium arsenide power virtually all satellites today. And in prototype concentrator applications on land, they can convert almost 40% of the solar energy into electricity.

PV sales have grown worldwide by 43% over the last five years and 57% just last year, making it a $7 billion industry. Most of the increased production capacity has occurred in Japan and Europe.

Despite of the steady progress and recent rapid advance in manufacturing capacity, electricity produced by PV still costs more than electricity produced using traditional fuels. As economies of scale are further realized and traditional fuels become more expensive, PV will become a much larger player in the energy game. The energy payback-which is the time it takes the PV system to produce more energy than it took to manufacture it-is between 2 to 4 years, depending on the technology type. Modules often come with warranties for 20 years or longer, making PV a viable technology from an energy-balance perspective.

Solar is the largest energy source available to humankind. The manufacturing capacity is achievable to produce PV at the scale necessary to provide all the power for a world population of 10 billion. Perhaps if we could put a value on clean air and a satisfying environment, then the cost difference between PV and traditional fuels would disappear.

Biomass Technologies

Biomass may be an unfamiliar term to the general public but it is an important part of today's energy portfolio, and will be an absolutely crucial piece of the energy puzzle in the near future. Biomass as a renewable energy source has important advantages applicable to climate change, energy security, and rural economic development.

In general, biomass can be thought of as plant matter, including trees, grasses, agricultural crops, or other biological material. Agricultural residues (particularly corn stover and wheat straw), wood residues (forest thinnings and sawmill woodchips), and energy crops (e.g., switchgrass) are abundant sources of biomass that are underutilized. Biomass is an extremely complex and interwoven matrix of compounds primarily composed of carbohydrate polymers-cellulose and hemicellulose-found in plant cell walls. Another key constituent is lignin, which is a large chemical compound that bonds with the hemicellulose to give plants rigidity and structural support.

Biomass has sustainability benefits realized through natural carbon recycle as the CO₂ generated during processing and end-use is used to grow additional plant matter during photosynthesis. In fact, biomass serves as a completely natural method of sequestering carbon. Carbon sequestration refers to the long-term storage of carbon on land or in the soil, underground, or in the oceans so that the buildup of CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere will reduce or slow. Doing this sequestration naturally is preferable than artificially isolating these gases in the ground or the ocean, which does not solve the problem, but simply moves it to a new location.

Humans have used biomass energy for thousands of years, beginning when people burned wood to cook food or keep warm. Biopower technologies today are proven options for electricity generation in the United States, with 10 gigawatts of installed capacity. Future efficiency improvements will include burning biomass in existing coal-fired boilers that are currently used to generate electricity and introducing new approaches such as high-efficiency gasification combined-cycle systems and fuel-cell systems. Biomass gasification for producing power involves heating biomass in an oxygen-starved environment to produce a medium or low calorific gas. This synthesis gas (or syngas) is then used as fuel in a combined-cycle power-generating plant.

While photovoltaics and wind also serve as renewable energy technology options, biomass plays a crucial role as the only renewable source of carbon for fuels and chemicals. The United States depends heavily on petroleum for its transportation needs, but two alternative liquid biofuels continue to gain popularity: ethanol and biodiesel. Ethanol is an alcohol fuel currently produced by fermenting glucose sugars derived in the U.S. mostly from corn (whereas Brazil uses sugarcane). It burns cleaner than gasoline, has a high octane rating, and is renewable and domestically produced. Some 3.4 billion gallons of ethanol were produced in the United States last year for use mostly as a fuel oxygenate. With the phase-out of MTBE (a fuel additive that pollutes groundwater), and with the recently implemented renewable fuels standard (RFS), ethanol production will continue to increase dramatically.

Biodiesel is produced from plant-based oils, primarily soybean oil in the United States. As with ethanol, it is renewable and produced domestically. About 30 million gallons of biodiesel are currently produced, but Europe produces more than 10 times this amount. Production volume will continue to increase thanks to tax credits and new energy legislation. Biodiesel has some superior fuel properties to diesel, particularly with regard to fuel lubricity. This becomes more important as diesel fuel's sulfur content (a harmful pollutant), which provides fuel lubricity, continues to be reduced.

With a gasoline demand in the United States of more than 135 billion gallons annually, much larger volumes of renewable fuels must be generated to significantly impact foreign oil dependence. Also, corn has several other competing uses, especially as food for both humans and livestock. Therefore, conversion of cellulosic biomass to renewable fuels is a key next step. Cellulose, stiff plant material that makes up the cell walls of plants, has until recently not been available as a feed-stock to create liquid fuels. But recent advances in "biocatalytic" enzymes have allowed for the economical production of fuels and other valuable lubricants and chemicals. Significant technological advances within the past five years have drastically reduced costs associated with these enzymes. Recently the two largest enzyme producers, Genencor and Novozymes, have succeeded in reducing the cost contribution of these enzymes from more than $5.00 per gallon of ethanol to less than $0.20.

By integrating a variety of biomass conversion processes, several products can be made in one facility called a biorefinery. Analogous to petrochemical refineries, the vision is that the biorefinery would produce both high-volume liquid transportation fuel to meet national energy needs and high-value chemicals or products to enhance operation economics.

Industry is making significant strides toward realizing the biorefinery. One specific example is the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (DuPont), Inc., project. Along with several other partners, DuPont leads the development of a biorefinery that converts both starch (e.g., corn kernels) and lignocellulose (e.g., corn stover) to fermentable sugars for producing value-added chemicals and fuel ethanol. Other successful industrial projects involve well-known companies such as Iogen, Cargill-Dow (now Natureworks), Cargill, and Broin. Even many petroleum companies are currently exploring the opportunities for integrating biomass and biomass products into their operations.

But is there enough biomass and/or land area to realize these high-level benefits? An April 2005 study by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (commonly referred to as "the Billion Ton Study") study estimated that 1.3 billion dry tons of biomass could be available annually with modest changes in land use. The energy content of this biomass (i.e., 3.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent) is more than 50% of the total U.S. petroleum consumption. Efficient conversion of this biomass resource is therefore the challenge.

Wind Energy

"Wind energy is real; it's no longer a dream. Wind turbines have become reliable, and with the current higher fuel prices, wind can be the most cost-effective energy source out there. It's a clean, domestic renewable resource." Thus says Dr. Robert Thresher, director of the National Wind Technology Center at NREL, in a quote typical of the optimism and opportunity surrounding wind power today. Wind is emerging as an important new player in the electric power industry.

More than a century ago, windmills pumped water for the steam engines of the first trans-continental railroads and for thousands of new farms spreading across the Great Plains. Beginning in the late 1920s, small wind turbines were used to charge batteries, providing electricity to rural homes. These distributed, small-scale uses of wind power-transforming technologies in their day-were largely pushed aside when the electric utility grid was extended throughout rural America in the 1940s and 1950s. Wind power remained on the sidelines until the energy crisis of the 1970s created a new urgency for alternate sources of energy. By the early 1980s, wind turbines were being connected to utility grids in the United States and Europe, and a new era for wind power had begun.

Today, wind power is the fastest-growing new source of electric power generation in the world. The major activity has been in Western Europe, the United States, and India. The United States had 6,740 megawatts of wind capacity at the end of 2004—enough to power 1.6 million homes. A key incentive in the United States is the federal production tax credit, currently $0.019/kilowatt-hour, which has been an on-again/off-again credit for the past decade, thus discouraging sustained growth. But that is about to change with the recent extension of the production tax credit through 2007. And on the state level, renewable portfolio standards mandating minimum levels of renewable energy for electricity generation are now in place in 21 states. As a result, 2005 may produce 2,000 megawatts of new wind capacity in the United States, the largest single-year total ever. Similar robust growth is expected through 2007.

The long, slender blades of a wind turbine extract energy from the wind using aerodynamic lift, which is the same phenomenon that allows airplanes to fly. The rotary motion of the blades goes into a speed-increasing gearbox that, in turn, drives an electric generator. The generator may be connected to an electronic power converter, which delivers the electricity to the grid. This approach, becoming prevalent in the industry, allows variable-speed operation of the wind turbine, which is more efficient and reduces the forces imposed by the wind.

Simple in concept, wind turbines are becoming increasingly sophisticated in design and in shear size. The first commercial wind turbines had ratings around 50 kilowatts, with rotor diameters of about 50 feet. Today, the average size of utility-scale wind turbines is 1.2 megawatts, with rotor diameters of more than 200 feet. Each turbine produces enough energy to supply the needs of hundreds of homes. Much larger machines, 2 to 5 megawatts each, are on the horizon. Increased turbine size has produced economies of scale in both manufacturing and installation. Improved aerodynamic performance of blades, use of advanced composite materials and power electronics, and improved engineering design methods have also contributed to reducing cost to a point that is competitive with other sources.

The wind industry is making a growing contribution to the U.S. economy. Ongoing wind farm construction employs thousands of workers. And there is one permanent job created for about every 10 new wind turbines-jobs mostly located in economically depressed rural areas. General Electric, the largest U.S. wind turbine manufacturer and a global industry leader, produces hundreds of turbine each year (see photo). To provide just two recent examples of the growing industry presence in the U.S., a start-up company in California, Clipper Windpower, Inc., has announced plans to open a manufacturing plant in Iowa that is expected to create 140 jobs by 2007. And a Spanish company, Gamesa Corp., recently selected Pennsylvania as the location for a new facility with 236 permanent jobs for manufacturing wind turbine blades.

General Electric 1.5-megawatt
wind turbines at the Colorado Green
wind farm, Lamar, Colorado.

One of the challenges of wind power is intermittency: the wind does not blow all the time. Wind power will continue to be used in combination with conventional sources of electricity that are dispatchable, or available on demand. Another characteristic to note is that wind power is a source of electricity, not transportation fuel. Eventually, wind-generated electricity will be used to produce hydrogen. But today, there is no cost-effective path from wind power to a transportation fuel. Though wind power is a clean, non-polluting energy source, it is not entirely benign. One wind farm area in California-the Altamont Pass-has been found to have an inordinately large number of bird kills. The only good news here is that bird kills are relatively rare at all other wind farms across the country. And, assessment of possible impacts on birds is now routine prior to approval of new developments. Recent studies of new wind farms in the Mid-Atlantic states have documented unexpectedly large numbers of bat fatalities during fall migration. Research is ongoing to better understand this problem and identify mitigation measures.

Wind is one of the solutions to our quest for alternative energy sources, and its future is promising. The trend of decreasing cost over time is expected to continue, allowing wind power to be economically viable in areas with somewhat lower wind resources. This will bring wind power closer to large metropolitan areas and may help overcome capacity limits that exist in some electrical transmission systems. Development of wind power offshore is also anticipated. For example, researchers estimate that there is more than 100 gigawatts of wind capacity off the coast of New England alone, a region where limited onshore wind resource and high population density limit the opportunities for development on land. Another scenario currently under study is the potential for coordinated operation of wind and hydroelectric generation facilities, mitigating the intermittency of wind while conserving limited hydro resources.

Editors Note: All the authors work at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO. This article was adapted from papers they delivered at the 2004 meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, a Christian organization and an EEN Partner.

You Found Our Trail, Didn't Ya?

Fred Wiechmann

The last few weeks of school always have a number unique student experiences which I classify under the heading, "Doing Stupid!" As principal, I go to great lengths to warn the 500 odd students (no pun intended) under my care at Lakeland Christian School (LCS) that they may be prone to do or say things the last week of school they would not typically do. This year was no exception.

Before I tell that story, I need to inform you of the original intent of this article which was to write about an interpretive nature trail on our campus called, "The Nature's Niches Tour." The tour provides unique view of our campus designed to awaken and inform teachers, students, and parents of the marvels of God's Creation found on our school grounds. Some of the fifteen points of interest are: "Turtletown" which is found in a courtyard. It's the home of three red-eared sliders equipped with a pond and waterfall, and six Florida Box Turtles living in a woodland environment found there. "Faith's Forest" is an area with native trees and a mini-pine forest. This area was planted and named in memory of a teacher who partnered with me to bring nature to children. Adjacent to it is a reclaimed field of native plants and trees planted by a Lakeland Christian School (LCS) student as his Boy Scout Eagle Project. "Water-Wise" is a mini-watershed in Faith's Forest which has been restored and maintained by our sixth grade students during Creation Care Week the past four years. A brochure and storyboards provide information of what they are observing at each of their stops along the trail. This year we began adding seating areas and picnic tables to make it more "people friendly." In the near future we hope to have a pavilion named "God's Gazebo" which can be used for outdoor classes and events. Parents, students, and teachers may take the tour throughout year, and it is featured during our annual Creation Care Week in March. Many in our school family seem to enjoy and appreciate my efforts.

This year, our fifth grade students had an exchange field trip with St. Paul Lutheran School, which also has a nature trail on its campus. LCS Fifth grade science teacher Teresa Mullinax trained a dozen student volunteers as docents to give talks about the points of interest on the trail. (They even designed their own T-shirt!) The fifth grade science teacher at St. Paul Lutheran School did the same. We planned the school visits during our respective Creation Care Weeks and it was a hit! The students benefited by sharing knowledge of the various habitats on their respective campuses and enjoyed making new friends at a neighboring Christian school. We hope to make this an annual event and expand it by inviting some neighboring public schools who do not have their own nature areas.

And now the story within the story….

It was reported to me the week before the last week of school that two fifth grade boys were "fooling around" in Faith's Forest after school. They were "staff-kids" so I assumed that they were taking advantage of the privilege of going to their parents' classrooms at dismissal. I tracked them down, gave them a verbal reprimand, and reminded them of the "doing stupid" speech I gave at chapel that week. They respectfully nodded their heads in agreement with numerous "yessirs" at the appropriate times, and I went off on my way satisfied they got my message.

The following Saturday, I was adding some new plants in Faith's Forest with two sixth grade students (and their Dads) who were serving a Saturday School for another "doing stupid" incident. While we were working I noticed an entrance to a trail into a wooded area next to where we were working. When I tool a closer look, I thought it might be a rabbit trail, but it was too wide and too deliberate. I followed the trail as it meandered around trees and shrubs and I thought that we may have some transients camping there again. I arrived at a clearing with a canopy of saplings over it. Several logs were arranged as seating areas, but there were no beer cans or litter.

The boys! Their trail! They made a fort! It made their agreeable nods and "yessirs" to mean, "Boy, am I glad you didn't ask what we were doing!" They made their own Nature's Niches Tour! I knew I needed to have another visit with them.

The last week of school came and went and I never got around to seeing the boys as I hoped to, but God always provides opportunities when we least expect it. Two weeks later at summer basketball camp, I saw the two boys and a buddy walking toward me outside the gymnasium, and their buddy said to me with a sparkle in his eye, "You found our trail, didn't ya?" The other boys cringed. To their surprise I answered, "Yes, and it was cool!"

They asked me why I thought that and I told them that when I sat down in their fort I had flash backs of the trails and forts I used to build in my backyard at my home in Pittsburgh. I had some great times there eating my PB & J sandwich on Towntalk Bread with Wise potato chips on the side chased down with a Regent blackcherry soda. It was my special place, my get-a-way. I didn't think anyone could see me there. I found out years later that my mother could see me the whole time. They always do!

As we talked, I emphasized safety concerns I had for doing this unsupervised and on school time. They understood and were concerned that they were in trouble. I told them that they did not have to worry about that now, but I would call their parents to let them know about it. Then they were worried, but I told them to trust me, that I had some ideas of how to make their mischief have a positive result. It was then they told me there were two other boys involved. (Misery always loves company)

With their parents permission I set a date to get the five boys together for a pizza lunch to discuss this further. I also asked the boys if they would take me for a hike on their trail. When I reassured them that this was not their last meal and there would be no punishment (this time) they really opened up top me about their experiences. "We loved just being there", "We had a special place of our own", "We enjoyed being with each other…just guys", "It was quiet there", "We saw wildlife" were comments shared with me with a smiles and bright eyes in our talk after pizza. I laughed out loud as they told me that they had names like "the lunchbox, eagle, and the track" to "cover their tracks" when they talked about in earshot of teachers. All the time they were talking I was thinking how good it was that these boys enjoyed being in a natural setting even if their creativity was mistimed.

At the time this little event occurred I had just read Larry Schweiger's editorial in the June National Wildlife Magazine titled, "The Tree in Your Front Yard." His opening statement was, "Our children are disconnected with nature." He states that by the time most children are seven they can identify 200 corporate logos but not the trees growing in their yards. He encouraged his readers to "take a moment and introduce one child to one tree." (I copied the editorial and attached a Project Learning Tree activity, "Adopt A Tree," and put it in all of our teacher's mailboxes with the same encouragement.)

That same week our academic dean gave me a book she picked up at an airport bookstore. She remarked that sounded like me! Richard Louv's, Last Child In The Woods- Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder, includes "cutting-edge research showing that direct exposure to nature is essential to healthy childhood development -- physical, emotional, and spiritual." What was compelling in his writing was the emphasis on the responsibility of parents to overcome their own fears of "traffic, strangers, and even virus-carrying mosquitoes--fears the media exploit--that keep children indoors" and encouraged them to provide opportunities for them and their children to revisit the natural world around them. In the school setting, as an extension of the home, we at LCS have tried to do this at every grade level in different ways throughout the school year for the past decade. These boys took my teaching to a new level!

A new school year is about to begin and there will be new opportunities for our students to experience God's creation on our campus. There may be tighter limits on where our students can go before and after school, but I have a committee of five young men who are excited to bring our students to a new stop on the Nature's Niches Tour…they are thinking of a name for it…and this time they will not have to "cover their tracks!"

Editors Note: Fred Wiechmann, a Contributing Editor to Creation Care magazine, is elementary principal at Lakeland Christian School in Lakeland, Florida. Throughout the school year he brings nature to his students in a variety of ways. He can be reached at fwiechmann@lcsonline.org