Inspire Shasta, Episode 16: Rebuilding Wonder — The Past, Present & Future of Whiskeytown Environmental School

Guests:

• Nathan Fairchild, Science Director, Shasta County Office of Education; Director of Whiskeytown Environmental School (WES)
• Dr. Melinda Kashuba, President, WES Community (Nonprofit Partner)

Hosts:
Maggie Joyce & Jenn Cobb

🌲 Episode Summary

For more than 50 years, Whiskeytown Environmental School (WES) has been a beloved rite of passage for Shasta County students—a week of cabins, night hikes, creek explorations, and unforgettable outdoor learning. In this episode, we sit down with two leaders at the heart of its rebirth: Nate Fairchild, SCOE’s Science Director, and Dr. Melinda Kashuba, president of the nonprofit WES Community.

They share the remarkable story of WES—from its origins in the 1970s environmental movement, to the devastation of the 2018 Carr Fire, to today’s extraordinary community-driven rebuild. You’ll hear how thousands of donors, volunteers, and partners have rallied to bring this outdoor school back stronger than ever—fully accessible, environmentally thoughtful, and ready to serve new generations of students.

This episode is filled with history, hope, and heartfelt stories about the power of nature-based learning and the community that refuses to let WES fade away.

🌟 Topics Covered

• Origins of WES: How environmental legislation in the 1970s created a nationwide need for hands-on outdoor education
• The WES experience: Cabins, night hikes, nature immersion, and the magic students remember for a lifetime
• Impact of the Carr Fire: Damage, safety concerns, and the long path toward recovery
• The $7.5M rebuild effort: How five volunteers and a community of supporters raised nearly $6M so far
• Partnership with the National Park Service: Unique land use, shared planning, and the long-term vision
• What’s being rebuilt
• Future programming
• Why it matters: Belonging, curiosity, resilience, and access to nature for every student
• How the community can help: Funding, volunteering, advocacy, and engaging in school district LCAP planning

💬 Memorable Quotes

“We’re not in the ‘if’ phase anymore. WES is coming back. The community has made sure of it.” — Nate Fairchild“We stand on the shoulders of greatness. The leaders who protect and educate about our natural world inspire us to keep going.” — Dr. Melinda Kashuba“Students deserve the chance to connect with nature, to be curious, and to see a future for themselves—even if home isn’t peaceful.” — Dr. Melinda Kashuba“If kids leave WES feeling connected to the Earth and understanding how to make sense of it through science, we’ve done our job.” — Nate Fairchild

🏕️ What Makes WES Special?

• It’s one of the last remaining outdoor schools still operating on National Park Service land.
• More than 155,000 students have attended since 1970.
• It offers rare access to creeks, trails, forests, and wildlife—all within minutes of Redding.
• It creates lifelong memories and deep emotional connections to nature.

🌱 Final Thoughts

WES is more than a camp—it’s a transformative experience that shapes how students see themselves, their community, and the natural world. Thanks to relentless volunteers, dedicated educators, and a generous community, Whiskeytown Environmental School is on its way back—stronger, safer, and ready for the next 50 years.

Transcript

Inspire Shasta Episode 16, Whiskeytown Environmental School

Maggie Joyce: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Inspire Shasta Podcast. Today we have the privilege of speaking with Nathan Fairchild, the Shasta County Office of Education Science Director who oversees outdoor education and leads program development for Whiskeytown Environmental School, and Dr. Melinda Kashuba, president of WES Community Whiskeytown Environmental School Community, who has played a vital role in the Grow Back Stronger rebuilding effort. Both guests are deeply committed to restoring and strengthening their beloved outdoor school that has impacted thousands of students over the past 50 years.

Thank you guys for joining us today. Well, thank you for having us. Thank 

Jenn Cobb: you. 

Maggie Joyce: I'm excited to learn more about your program. 

Jenn Cobb: Yeah. Uh, so to get us started, we have our signature question that we ask all of our guests at Inspire Shasta, and the question is, if you could go back to any grade in school for one day, what grade would it be and why?

Melinda Kashuba: Oh, 

Jenn Cobb: okay. 

Melinda Kashuba: I would say it was the fourth grade. I was 10 years old in the fourth grade. That was 1965 and [00:01:00] it was a really pivotal year in our society and we had a fabulous teacher. I met my best friend who's still my best friend. Um, after 60 years. We live about 400 miles apart, but that's okay.

We're still friends. We met in the fourth grade. It was a time when, um, there was a lot of tumult, the civil rights era, and she took the time to explain to us, 'cause I was living in the bay area of what was happening. 'cause it was scary and she didn't hide the truth from us, but she gave us facts and she also introduced us to art.

Mm. Yeah. Beautiful. Like Renoir. Yeah. And Monet. It was just mind expanding the fourth grade. 

Jenn Cobb: That's 

Maggie Joyce: so cool. That's fantastic. I love an educator who's just real with their students, right? Mm-hmm. And grows their world, right? Absolutely. She did. Yeah. How about you, Nate? 

Nathan Fairchild: I'll be two years different than that, [00:02:00] Melinda.

I would go back to sixth grade. I had gone through elementary school as a painfully shy child. And when I got to sixth grade, I developed some friendships and we would hang out in Mr. Bruce's room at lunchtime and we would hide behind this in this little little corner. He fully knew we were there. We could be silly and have our lunch there and, and I connected with people and one day they said, Hey, there's a musical. We're going to go try out. Would you like to try out? I had no idea what this was about, but my friends wanted to do it and I wanted friends. So I went down and I auditioned. Wow. And I got a lead part, and that was. The moment that I could really come into myself. Mm-hmm. 

Speaker 6: Yeah. 

Nathan Fairchild: That was the moment I could get expand beyond my shyness. And you know, I think if I could add one thing to that sixth grade, though, I chose sixth grade for another reason, we would've gone to a program like Whiskeytown Environmental School mm-hmm. For that day. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah, that's [00:03:00] fantastic. It's great when our teachers can provide even a space at lunchtime, right?

For students to just come in and, and get to hang out with their peers and get exposed to different friend groups and look at open doors for you. 

Nathan Fairchild: Probably Mr. Bruce has no idea that that had the impact that it did on me. You know, sometimes those little moments in our lives that end up having huge impacts, we don't know it at the time.

We look back later. Those are some of the most beautiful moments in our lives. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Many educators never get to know those main amazing moments. They're a part of little seed blessing. Yeah. Well, thank you guys for sharing that. Um, Nate, can you tell us a little bit about your role with Whiskeytown Environmental School and what that program looks like today?

Nathan Fairchild: Certainly I am the director of Whiskeytown Environmental School, so I oversee from that county office point of view, the operations of it. And then there are people who work at Whiskeytown Environmental School that do the actual teaching. And uh, when we have our residential program running, then we also have a site director.

[00:04:00] Who is there who handles the day-to-day operations. While I'm more the maybe month to month sort of operations, although I do love my opportunities to teach out there, I do get to go out and teach from time to time when we're short on staff or there's a special need and I love that. And uh, have a little bit more hands-on right now.

'cause we don't have that site level person. Exactly. We do have a lead educator. Tallianna Richey-Miller, who was recently honored by the Association of Environmental and Outdoor Educators as their educator of the year. 

Speaker 6: Wow. What an honor. Yeah. Um, 

Nathan Fairchild: oh, and then you asked what was going on right now. Well, so what is going on right now is our day programs.

Now, these have been continuously in operation for many, many years, and often not the poster of Whiskeytown Environmental School, which is the residential program, but that's students in, we're now down to, uh, even preschool. All the way up until eighth grade, and even if a high school asked, we would come in and do something for a high [00:05:00] school too.

So we offered these half day programs and they're really beautiful programs that involve education directly addressing the standards for that grade level. So. No two grades see and do the same things. They might go in the water because the kids love to go in the water and explore, find creatures pan for gold, whatever it might be, whatever the reason is to go in the water.

They enjoy that. But we have, we hit all these different standards, so we're really supporting the teachers strongly. We've also recently added something called immersion lessons, and these are immersion in nature. So the students get to really, uh, do activities that let them connect with nature, and that might be just pausing to listen for sounds and make a sound map.

Or it might be making a leprechaun national Park as if you were a tiny little leprechaun, the size of your thumb, and you have a magnifying glass and a piece of string to make your tiny little magical park of tiny, little beautiful things. [00:06:00] And that's been received really well, as well as our, our standards based lessons.

Maggie Joyce: That's fantastic. When you say residential program, is that the program that maybe I remember as a sixth grader who grew up in Shasta County where we got to go there and stay the week in the cabins? 

Nathan Fairchild: Yes, and and this is something that happened throughout California in the '70s, where county offices were given the opportunity to start outdoor education programs, sometimes called residential outdoor science schools.

So not a school in the sense that the kids go there year round, but very much a focus on education. And so this is the program when pe when I talk to people about WES, which is Whiskeytown Environmental school, they hear, okay, cabins, I'm there a week, I'm with my friends. I'm in the fifth grade or maybe the sixth grade, depending on my school.

So that is our signature program for sure. But we've also had summer programs and, and we've done some different things over the years to, uh, to support the community and provide opportunities. 

Jenn Cobb: [00:07:00] Um, Melinda, question to you. Uh, could you tell us a little bit about the history of WES and kind of the legacy of WES and what inspired you to become involved?

Melinda Kashuba: Well, to pick up with what Nate said, it was the federal government, through the Department of the Interior. The National Environmental Education Department NEED, that's why it's called NEED Camp.

Um, popularly, um, provided money to, uh, local entities like Shasta County Office of Education to provide this really necessary environmental education because in 1970, the Clean Water Act was passed. 

Speaker 2: Mm. 

Melinda Kashuba: The Clean Air Act was passed. Endangered Species Act passed and there was a real need to fill the gap in education about the environment.

There were, of course, biology classes and chemistry classes, and physics classes being taught in California and the rest of the country, but there was nothing [00:08:00] on ecology. And so this was seen to be a, a way to educate the youth about what's happening in the environment. Air pollution, water pollution, pesticides.

And so forth. And, um, outdoor education is essential. Hands-on learning to see how a forest works, to understand what's going on in rivers and ponds and where does your water come from. Mm-hmm. And the, you know, all these things. And it sounds very commonplace today, which is wonderful. But back then in 1970, it was not taught in that way.

And so that's sort of how WES started, is my understanding. It was a partnership between, the federal government and a local school operation. And so that's what makes this amazingly special because this alignment between these two levels of governance as, uh, continued for over 54 years. [00:09:00] WES.

The school is, uh, one of the last of a handful that survive. Many of them have become YMCA camps or other kinds of private camps, but we're kind of unique in that way. And, um, Whiskeytown Environmental School Community, the nonprofit that I lead , started in, 2011. We started, um. It's funny to say this now.

Um, under kind of negative circumstances, we were concerned as a community that outdoor education was going to disappear and that the Shasta County Office of Education, specifically some of the leadership was becoming uninterested in funding this and looking at other programs instead. And so a group of us got together and formed a nonprofit to help raise money.

In the sense of something like a parent teacher organization where we would come in and help fill in gaps if something was needed. Like one year it was a [00:10:00] washing machine that broke down at WES and we helped raise money, obtain money to replace a washing machine because it wasn't in the scoe budget and it wasn't in the Park Service budget.

And or whatever was needed. So every year we would go to the board after 2011 with and find a list of things of needs Wow. That we could help fulfill. 

Maggie Joyce: It's amazing you were filling the gaps. Yeah, we were 

Melinda Kashuba: filling in the gaps. Exactly. And we also helped raise tuition along with a partner, nonprofit, uh, Friends of Whiskeytown Inc.

They also helped raise tuition money for students who couldn't attend WES, the residential program. So cool. And that's how we kind of moved along for years. And one of the things our organization did was to help bring the, A representative from the National Park Service and from SCOE every month to our board meeting.

There actually wasn't a consistent line of communication between those two entities, which seems really weird. Mm-hmm. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Since Whiskeytown Environmental School is in the Park [00:11:00] service. It is area, yeah. 

Melinda Kashuba: It's within the, the National Recreation Area. Yeah, that is correct. And so, um, we facilitated that and I think that is still one of our proudest accomplishments is that we created a space, a safe space that we all could meet.

That's important I think, to have that and it's helped maintain a strength. Well then moving forward to 2018 with the Carr Fire. And nine cabins were damaged, if not burned completely in the Carr Fire. It's amazing that the school survived and that is a nod to our brave firefighters.

Mm-hmm. That helped save it. It's just astonishing because all around the main camp area, there was damage, there was burn, and um, there was a time when it didn't look like that it would come back. The program would come back because of concerns of, for example, debris flows. The Paige Boulder Creek watershed was burned pretty severely, but thankfully those didn't happen.

They didn't happen [00:12:00] within the four or five year timeline. And since that time, the National Park Service has gone forward and done, uh, hydrology modeling and found that it's unlikely now that that's going to be a problem. And the housing has always been above the floodplain, so it would've been an out of flooding.

It was just a precaution. And so in 2018. For, there was about a year and a half to a two year period where we weren't sure what was gonna happen, but once the Park Service had provided the information that a debris flow seemed, uh, rebo, then SCOE's board, um, decided to come back. He said, let's do it. I know Nate worked really hard to find a replacement location, but couldn't find one.

That offered the same combination of different habitats with proximity to Redding on a hard road with utilities. Yeah. Yeah. Those are all big asks. Yeah. And, and, and, and WES has it all 

Nathan Fairchild: and, and no snow because, uh, a [00:13:00] lot of the camps are located above the snow line in significant snow, which would prevent buses from getting in or maybe kids from getting out.

So that was the other criteria. True. 

Maggie Joyce: My daughter actually went the year that the kids got snowed in. Ah, yeah. Or maybe it's been more multiple years, but there was one year where, yeah, I don't think we could come to parent, uh, or parent visiting day because of the snow. 

Nathan Fairchild: And we did have a temporary year in 2019 when we operated out of Lassen Pines, which was also one of the snowiest years that we had had.

Yeah. And that made for very interesting year for us, but also helped us to understand the potential Yeah. Of being at 5,000 feet or higher, even though the camp seemed beautiful in the summertime. We operate, uh, in the winter as well. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Well you, Melinda, you mentioned the Carr Fire. So what were the biggest challenges that the campus faced, um, following the fire and how did your organization mobilize community support to help address those issues?

Melinda Kashuba: Great questions, Maggie. Thank you. Um, [00:14:00] well, since this is on National Park Service Land, they are in charge of the land. They bandage the land of the buildings. To, to our sadness. Very soon after SCOE decided to return the cabins that had been built some 65 years before, mostly by volunteer efforts, were condemned because they were, had lived well beyond their useful lives.

According to the architect that examined them for that many years. The ones that were still standing, they were scorched. Some of them were badly scorched, they were still standing. But the, um, siding had melted. Off and it looked, they looked terrible and they were built up on pillars, so to speak, and raised.

And that was one of the reasons why some of the cabins burned is embers and ashes got underneath them. Oh, wow. And up they went So though, and they were also not accessible. That was an issue as well. And, um, luckily SCOE, the Park Service and ourselves are all aligned on the idea of accessibility, that all children [00:15:00] should have a chance to go to camp.

And so, okay, we have to rebuild student housing. Well, we thought that shouldn't be a problem. The Park Service said, okay, we, we wanna see if you could raise money to do that. And so we had to fund a, uh, feasibility study. And luckily we had an anonymous donor from the Bay Area that, uh, gave us money and we used that to, uh.

To do a feasibility study where, uh, we hired, uh, Gordon Flynn from Go Forth Consulting to go out into the community and interview people. Numerous, kind of like focus groups and one-on-one interviews to find out people, business people, people who had gone his kids to find out if there was interest 

Speaker 6: Yeah.

Melinda Kashuba: To contribute money. And he's, he came back and said, well, good news, bad news. Everyone loves it. Good news everyone's excited about, but it looks like maybe you can raise at most $3.1 million. And we said, okay, well let's [00:16:00] do it. Let's just go ahead and just get started. And we started a capital campaign in May of 2022, and since May of 20 22 until last month, we have raised over $5.9 million.

Maggie Joyce: Wow. Congratulations. I know. That's amazing. 

Melinda Kashuba: Um, at the time the Park Service said, well, we're gonna try to cost share, do matching funds here. There are funds available through the National Park Service for replacement of buildings, for maintenance of buildings, utilities and so forth. And so we're gonna try and match these.

And the more matching funds you can garner through pledges, donations, grants, the better, the more it puts you in better standing to to gain access to this money. And they said 7.5 million. And we said, okay, that's our goal. 7.5 million. Even though we were told maybe 3.1 million. And so our team of volunteers, my board are all volunteers.

We have paid contractors, but we don't have, you know, our board members are not paid [00:17:00] for any of the work. And so there are five of us and off to the race as we went. And we have worked really hard to do this, and we have a little bit more to go, and I'm hoping that 2026 will put us. Over the $7.5 million mark.

Nathan Fairchild: Melinda, I have to jump in here a little bit 'cause Melinda, we've done these interviews before. Melinda's always so humble, but there's a picture I wanna make sure I paint of WES Community and she's painted that a little bit, but I need a, a few more brush strokes on that. Some more colors for you. So yes, they were an organization that started to support us.

They were helping us buy boots and then when the Carr Fire hit, there was this feeling of. Who's going to raise this money? I think it's very easy in our community to say, well, somebody will do that. And who is that? Somebody. Right. And I think, you know, fear can be a big part of our actions as human beings.

Like I don't [00:18:00] know how to do. This thing that I should do, whatever it is. I mean, I remember the first time I walked into Schrader Planetarium, I said, I really don't know a lot about planetariums, and now I'm directing one. Right. So there's that fear moment of can I even do this? Yeah. And maybe someone else should, and I just.

I, you know, it's been years, and I still get teary eyed whenever I bring this up because I think of this group who said, we buy boots, and they said, no, we now raise millions of dollars. We hire contractors, we get plans, we organize people together. We, we build bridges in the community. Relentless, uh, it was timed around the time of Melinda's retirement, in part, so she could spend more time doing this.

So if you want a little inspiration, spend a little time with the people in WES community because they are inspirational. And I did wanna jump in with one more piece of history because we would be remiss if we didn't point out the early actions of the Lions Club. Of the Red Lions Club. Mm-hmm. And they jumped [00:19:00] in and already had a fundraiser going before we even knew what was going on.

We were still trying to get our feet after the fire, but the community said. We know it's needed. You need money. And so they arranged a whole day and this day became a fundraiser that raised $30,000. And that $30,000 was significant at the time because we didn't have funds set aside from the the WES Community or from Shasta County office education. Yeah. And instead though, they said, here is some money. And we were able to use that for things like, the earliest plans that we did came from dacre, which is, uh, a renowned camp, um, architectural firm, uh, in. North Carolina's one of their sites. I think they're in Chicago, a couple other places.

So that initial jumpstart really helped us develop a vision along with some other work that, uh, s National Parks Foundation came out and we had a, uh, uh, several days of developing that vision and getting on the same page with all the entities [00:20:00] involved. Yeah. And kind of that high five we can do this attitude, started us out and helped.

But WES community. Amazing folks. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah, they definitely, you're putting into action what, where you see the need, right. It's not, we see the need, who's gonna fill it as we see the need and we're gonna fill it And, and WES Camp is such an institution for Shasta County students. Many parents who grew up here have their own memories of WES Camp.

And so when you're brought in the consultant to do a study. The community spoke also and said, this is something that we feel has holds a lot of value for our students and our community. So I, I love that it, that this is where we're at today and we're close to where that goal is to be able to bring back WES to what we know it can be.

Um, we definitely have a long legacy of outdoor education with WES Camp. Um, Nate, I wanna talk to you a little bit about what makes WES Experience so unique for the students here in our county. 

Nathan Fairchild: [00:21:00] Sure, and, and I'll expand first because somebody might have heard the unique relationship that we have with the National Park Service and how rare this is, which is a hundred percent true.

When we look at need camps, which were National Park Service camps. When we look at county offices, other people listening might say, wait a minute, my kid went to some camp down, you know, down near Sacramento, somewhere. Lots of county offices have these programs. They're all very similar. They have their different flavors, and I've worked for many of them over the years.

And at Whiskeytown Environmental School, they get a couple, they get one thing that a lot of other, uh, students don't get around the state. They get to go in their own backyard. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. And 

Nathan Fairchild: discover how amazing it is to get down on their knees and look at the grasses growing and the little tiny creatures living on the underside of a leaf.

They get the opportunity to see the watery areas because one of the beautiful things about Whiskeytown environmental schools is got two, three [00:22:00] creeks actually running right through the area that are within walking distance. So they get to see that that is in the area and they can go back out to that area to Whiskeytown National Recreation area and take a walk with their family so often.

You know, it's great to. Go four hours and end up in the redwoods or the mountains. But at the same time, when I think about a lot of our students don't get to go to the ocean, many of them have never been to Lassen National Park. So here's an opportunity to go in their own backyard and get this magical experience.

And when we ask students about what they remember, uh, what we hear often about the night hike, which is why there is a, is, is quite an experience for kids. And, uh. I think for some of them, at first it's a rite of passage of, oh, I was afraid. I went out there. It was the scariest thing I ever did, and I made it back alive.

But I like to think it's more than that. When I led night hikes, I really focused on the beauty of being out in the night and what it was like to just be quiet [00:23:00] and experience that dark. There's a some beautiful poetry that I would read about that Wendell Berry's to Go In the Dark is a glorious poem about exactly that.

So that's one of the things that kids remember. They remember, um, being in cabins and with their friends. Yeah. And with maybe a high school cabin leader. Although we're leaning more towards adult cabin leaders, it's up to the districts. But, uh, being in that cabin than not with their parent, quite often that experience was very life changing for them.

Simply being away from home for those days was. A new thing. It's usually their first time they've been away from home for that long, unless they were with grandparents or something. But this is different than that too. Then we add in the nature component, we add in the science learning. Component, even the bus trips.

It is, it comes together as this beautiful passage that people remember forever. And Melinda and I have shared stories of if I wear my Whiskeytown [00:24:00] environmental school t-shirt, I will get questions from people walking by me. 'cause that t-shirt means that I am available to answer questions clearly.

And so quite often they'll ask, and then when I reveal who I am, then they have a lot more questions because. This is such a uniting program. 

Speaker 6: Yeah. 

Nathan Fairchild: It's a beloved program by everybody and we can throw out politics and we can just be community people who love this program for our children. So I think that's what's meaningful to parents too.

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. What a testament to the institution that it is. Right. It really is a community commitment to, to bring it back to. Maybe what? What we remember it being and then moving it forward to what we wanna see it be in the future. Right. 

Melinda Kashuba: That's our intention is to create a camp that'll last another 50 years.

Yeah. That's completely accessible. Yeah. Trails, cabins, showers. So we're very excited [00:25:00] Yeah. To see this, uh, emerge. Yeah. 

Nathan Fairchild: And the Shasta County Office of Education has a reputation for taking average things and making them above average. I just heard there've been four Golden Bell Awards. Mm-hmm. Uh, today that was announced.

And so these are recognitions throughout the state, recognizing the small county office of Shasta as being a leader. So we have plans to make Whiskeytown environmental school even better than it was, and a lot of those don't even cost money. They're just programmatic changes. Yeah. That has a vision of something that is even more incredible for the kids because we have learned in the last 50 years, and we can implement that to make a program that is even more immersive, impressive, and enjoyable, and a better learning experience for the kids.

Yeah. 

Melinda Kashuba: Right. And uh, it goes without saying that, uh, the board of the Shasta County Office of Education several years ago committed $1.8 million to the building. It's so important of a brand new office and, um, medical dispensary unit at the front [00:26:00] of the camp. I was, um, at a gathering Saturday night, and a teacher was there who had taken kids.

It taught. Grades three through six here in Shasta County. And, um, had a couple of times when the kids at his cabin had gotten sick and or one of them broke his arm falling outta bed and, uh, had to go to the er. And the frustration of, you know, trying to bring a parrot through a dark campus at night, unfamiliar place, having all this up in the front will make it a much safer campus, certainly, and a much easier campus to access.

And so we are very grateful. To the board to have committed that or pledged that money toward this building effort. Yeah. Fantastic. 

Jenn Cobb: Um, so in terms of cabins, dining hall, program spaces, uh, what progress has been made so far on the rebuild and what milestone. 

Melinda Kashuba: Oh, okay. And Nate points to me. All right. That's 

Nathan Fairchild: you.

That's better you than me right now. It's, 

Melinda Kashuba: it's, it [00:27:00] definitely, it's us since we are raising the money and hiring engineering contractors to do everything from soil testing to looking at the leach field and making sure that's still serviceable and what might need to be replaced there. We've also, um, are working with the Park Service and they're, uh.

Architect engineering firm, um, Anderson Hollis, who will be looking at Hatcher Hall and examining all the, um, infrastructure connected to Hatcher Hall to make sure it's upgraded. Um, because even though it's been fun, it was functioning for years fine. And to make it better, we have to upgrade the commercial kitchen, for example.

Yeah. Yeah. Because 

Nathan Fairchild: just, just to jump in, Hatcher Hall is our dining hall as well as it has other spaces we use, we have used for office and so forth, but it's primarily the dining hall there. Yeah, 

Melinda Kashuba: it's a multipurpose space, so if it is cold or wet outside and the kids are there, they'll do activities in Hatcher Hall.

So it, it functions in many, many [00:28:00] ways. And since the Carr Fire, it's been used very lightly. And so I don't even think there's functioning heat yet in the building because that was gas fired, that heat and um, that tank went away after the Carr Fire. And so there's no functioning heat in the building. There is air conditioning of a sort.

And fans, but all these things need to be looked at. Yeah. And, and so we're happy to help funded that effort. And so yes, we're building student housing. And right now, um, development can't take place until the completion of the environmental documentation. There there are, uh, federal laws regarding, uh, construction on federal property.

And so there, there's going to be a public hearing coming in the near future on looking at the changes that are being proposed. And, um, hopefully it'll be, um, a negative declaration because it is a site that's been used for decades and even actually for a century and a half. Agriculture, logging, [00:29:00] mining, all taken, placed on this site within the footprint of WES.

And so it's not exactly a pristine environment, even though it looks very pristine. Pristine. And people would think that they really are in this beautiful natural forest, but actually it's a second or third growth forest. I think 

Nathan Fairchild: one other thing I wanna highlight, people sometimes wonder what has been happening with WES? Where are the buildings? What's going on? You know? Mm-hmm. Why are people sitting on their hands and there's no sitting on their hands? It 

Maggie Joyce: doesn't sound like there's any sitting. No, no. I mean, I 

Nathan Fairchild: can share with you that from the. Within a month after the fire.

That meetings have been happening every month since then. There's probably somewhere in there where it's not true for a couple of months, but in general, every month has had meetings, and they're not just meetings to have meetings. They're very specific with goals. And those goals have been accomplished when we look at, people go out there and they, they'd like to see a new building standing there, but what I see are plans that have been made and refined and made accessible [00:30:00] for, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

I see that of. 

Maggie Joyce: Thought and intention, huh? Yeah, 

Nathan Fairchild: and then such great teamwork because the Shasta County office of Ed is always called in on that. It's not our site, but it is a site we will occupy for a significant part of the year. So every month. More plans, more fundraising of all of the documentation and, uh, analysis and data that had to be gathered.

I mean, I can remember endless conversations about wanting to get the right intervals on contour maps. There's just so much we, we don't go into right now, but I just want people to understand that this is a continuous effort from. The date of the fire that continues to go on today with, with more plans and, and so right now it is about the plans and it's having really beautiful plans that have taken multiple, multiple iterations so that we could come into something that would serve the students better, the safety better, and, and the community better than it [00:31:00] did before.

Melinda Kashuba: Yeah. So 

Nathan Fairchild: we're excited we're moving. 

Melinda Kashuba: And Nate brings up a good point. Um, it is a community. Site, uh, is within the national Park, and so organizations, adult organizations, and clubs and leadership groups can have meetings out there once we start construction. And our first construction project is the amphitheater.

The amphitheater was built well over 55 years ago. It was an outdoor amphitheater right at the, the corner, if you will, of Clear Creek and Paige Boulder Creek. Yeah. It's a beautiful site. The sound of the water passing by is just divine and the wind of the trees, and so, but it had fallen into. Um, you know, a little bit of disrepair through tree roots, through the activities of ground squirrels and woodpeckers.

Um, and so, and it wasn't accessible. Um, it wasn't a place of a child or an adult had any kind of [00:32:00] mobility impairments. It would be difficult for them to go from the top of the amphitheater down to the stage, for example. Yeah. And so we went ahead and with the work with Scoe and the National Park Service, hired SHN engineers to create a plan for a brand new amphitheater that will be accessible to all, and it will hold the same amount of people as the, the old one did.

And the kids set sit by cabins, if you will, and we're gonna put all that back together. But it will be a, uh, an amphitheater that will last for decades to come. So that's one. That's our first development project, and that should get underway in early 2026. We have the plans. The plans are in final review with the Park Service right now, and we are just about ready to go, and we have volunteer groups such as Rotary, who have helped us raise funds, raise funds for that, and the community foundation of the North State and the McConnell Foundation as well.

Have all contributed to this and many, many, many businesses [00:33:00] throughout our community. When we did a fundraising program for it two years ago during Giving Tuesday, we're exceptionally generous. And so that is our first project and we're very excited to get that going, and that will be a place that people will hopefully be able to use by next summer.

Maggie Joyce: That's fantastic. It just, every, the more you guys keep sharing how this is all coming together, the more it just reiterates that it, it is a cross community organization collaboration to bring this back to something that it once was and something that moves us into the future. So alongside the physical rebuilding of the buildings and the infrastructure.

Um, Nate, I'm hoping that you can share with us a little bit about. What the thoughts are about enhancing future programming to bring to students in school once WES comes back to being in its full working structure. 

Nathan Fairchild: I would say we're still at the early stages of this, but I will share just [00:34:00] some initial thoughts that I have and.

Will these change? I kind of hope so because more people will be weighing in on this as we have these conversations about programmatic changes. It's really essential to keep the core of what this program has always been, which in, in my view is five days. Not, not two and a half. Two and a half is tempting because it saves money.

But you essentially, your first and your last day are short. You end up with a one day program with a first and a last day when you go two and a half. So we wanna keep that five day program. We wanna keep the cabin sense, we wanna keep the community sense, uh, the social importance, uh, the nature integration.

We want all those things to stay. We wanna still have evening programs every night. We want the flavor to be the same that it's been for 50 years. But that said. I want to really look at this as a holistic program and not a collection of pieces because a lot of outdoor ed programs in the state, in my opinion, have become collections of pieces.

Why do [00:35:00] we do a folk dance? Because we've always done a folk dance. Yeah. Now maybe we want to do a folk dance, but let's make sure it's part of a whole vision. I want students to. Before they ever get on the bus. I want them to have a sense of the magic of this program. I want them to get on the bus and be so excited because they already know this is going to be something they've never experienced before.

Even if they've been to the Whiskeytown area a hundred times when they get off the bus, I want them immediately to go into a grand meeting of. All the kids in all the schools that week, and I want that to be an inspirational meeting. Not the rules, not the, not that stuff yet, let's inspire kids and get them launched on that when they first get there.

Mm. When we have a vision of the whole piece that we want centered around loving the earth and learning science, then when they go into the dining hall, we want that to continue and we've weighed food waste forever. And I think that still fits, but not [00:36:00] all the pieces fit that beautifully into the vision.

You know, when we have a business, we have a vision and we have mission elements. I want Wes to be really strong with its vision and its mission elements, so they all fit together. It's not Frankenstein. We want instead that beautiful, immersive environment that will really touch kids' hearts and minds.

Yeah, 

Maggie Joyce: I love that and and I think so many of our kids are so connected to a device these days to be able to provide that intentionally. It's like a symphony, right? Every piece fits together and they can go for five days. Two Whiskeytown environmental school, disconnect from the devices and connect to the earth and what's in nature in their own community.

I just like, I get shivers when you're, I see Melinda's face as you're talking, and it's just the sweetest smile of like, yes, that is, that's why we're here. That's what's driving the work is what experience can be provided to [00:37:00] our students in just county. Mm-hmm. So I just, I love that. 

Melinda Kashuba: Wes, uh, also provides, um, besides the science curriculum, the social as well.

It also, I think, has the potential to provide a children a vision of themselves in the future. Oh. Because not every child comes from a home that is calm and peaceful. And for four and a half days, they can be apart from their family, be with other people, be with, uh, caring adults, responsible adults, and, um, just get a sense that there might be something else out there including, uh, career education as well.

Because in the past, um, SCOE has invited professionals into business. Sector to come. Forestry professionals, for example, and demonstrate what they do. You know, what does Sierra Pacific do when they manage a forest? How do they look at forests as resources, for [00:38:00] example? And kids can say that. Kids particularly who don't see a pathway to a four year college.

Speaker 6: Yeah. 

Melinda Kashuba: Exposure, they can get a sense for, well, maybe I can go to Shasta College. And of full disclosure, I taught there for 15 years and so I'm very pro Shasta College. And, um, I'm also a child who's the first in her family to go to college. And so I know the value of it and just getting a, a certificate in something that they're interested in.

And, um, there would be one evening for the children, uh, where they would have college options come. And talk about, you know, if, if a child is inspired by playing in the creek and then hear that evenings about you could grow up and become a biologist. Mm. There are people who do things like, um, measure salmon and watch salmon runs, uh, tree, uh, creeks like Clear Creek for example, and Paige Boulder Creek.

This is something you don't have to think about working in an office, you can work outdoors. Yeah. And for [00:39:00] a lot of people in Shasta County. That grew up in logging families or ranching families, um, that's important to them. That's important that they can see a pathway for themselves. And I think West does that beautifully.

Combines it as Nate said, in a symphonic fashion where you can see all these little pieces come together. And that vision I think is really important. And the fact that the, um, school site survived the Carr Fire. And the resilience of the forest around the site teaches children that they can be resilient too in life.

Maggie Joyce: Exposure, hope, resiliency. I mean, you guys are providing all the things. Yeah, 

Jenn Cobb: I love that. That's such a beautiful way to put it. Um, is there anything that you, Melinda, that you wish people understood more about the value of a hands-on place-based learning environment? 

Melinda Kashuba: Oh my gosh. You're talking to a geographer.

Um. [00:40:00] Trained in the relationship between people and the landscape. It's an integral part of ourselves, um, having some exposure to green spaces, but even though someone might grow up and find themselves living in the city and working in a downtown area seemingly far from anything natural. And for some people that's fine, but there comes a point in their lives when, uh, taking a walk in a park and sitting on a bench and watching birds or listening to the wind in the trees, as I mentioned earlier, that can be relaxing.

That can be a source of, um, uh, what would I say, um, finding oneself, you know, standing outside of yourself for a moment and your issues and just being immersed in. The outdoor world because we come from living outdoors. We are of that, and [00:41:00] so our ancient ancestors. We're drawn and nurtured to green spaces, and we haven't lost that.

Despite all of our screens and our beautiful air conditioned buildings and so forth, we are still very much like our ancient ancestors. And when I taught cultural geography, I asked my students, um, what kinds of things make you feel good outdoors? And one of the things they inevitably would say, oh, when I go camping.

Campfire. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We are drawn to fire outdoors in a campfire with people enjoying the dark night sky and the stars and stories and songs emerge. We are no different than our ancient ancestors from thousands of years ago in that regard, and I think that's important to impart that information to people today.

Nathan Fairchild: I'll jump in on that hands-on part, if you don't mind. 

Jenn Cobb: Definitely. 

Nathan Fairchild: Hands [00:42:00] on to me. And, and I taught, uh, in the classroom for 20 years, and it was always hands on. Uh, my, my joke was that we used textbooks, uh, a lot in physics because we made ramps and we had to set the ramps upon the textbooks. Uh, and we did use textbooks, don't get me wrong, but the focus was always on hands-on.

And what I discovered th is that, and this is very true at Whiskeytown Environmental School, that hands-on is equitable and it's fair. Because the kids come in and often in science programs today, in classrooms, but especially at Whiskeytown where we feel like, I feel like my staff is modeling this right now.

We start with a phenomena. I love to pull out a gall. A gall are those little brown things on the oak trees and people think they're wasp nests and they have, they look like these dried up apples and people are very curious about them. So let's hand that to a child and say, let's explore this. They generally start out all on the same page.

They don't know anything really about this. They've heard some things, they [00:43:00] don't have any evidence, they're not sure of much of anything, but they're really curious and they notice the different size holes in the outside and, and they wanna see the inside. So guess what? There's a saw, let's cut one of these things open and see what's in there.

And there's this foamy stuff and sometimes there's something alive in there that they see, and so they are hands-on investigating something for themselves and there isn't a teacher telling them what to think or how to think it. Instead, the teacher's facilitating by asking questions like, why do you think there are two different kinds of holes?

What do you think made those holes? Why do you think that? Yeah, and when we explore that way, everybody comes in. As close to fair as we could possibly be. And I think that makes a difference when we have kids coming in to kindergarten who already know how to read, and we have other kids coming in who may not read until late third grade.

Speaker 2: Yeah. 

Nathan Fairchild: So if we can give them something where they can find success [00:44:00] and they can come out going, wow, I am smart. I figured this out. 

Speaker 6: Yeah, you're, if 

Nathan Fairchild: we can give them that, I think we're giving them something that is a huge gift that goes well beyond the science education itself. Giving them self confidence 

Maggie Joyce: and you're providing a space for them to be curious and critically think, you know, which doesn't sometimes doesn't happen just via learning through a textbook.

So I, I really, again, just wanna say thank you guys so much for the space that you're providing for our students because it is not like many of the models of education that many kids get exposure to. Right. Um, we talked a lot today about the origins of WES where we're at. Where we were pre car fire, where we are post car fire.

Um, I just wanna know, in closing, do you guys have anything that you would like the community to know that we didn't talk about today? Or if a community member, parent educator family wants to get involved or help with WES, [00:45:00] um, what are some places that we can direct them to? 

Melinda Kashuba: Oh, wonderful. Well, first of all, Whiskeytown Environmental School Community.

We have a website, WES community.org, and that's the place where we post a lot of information about our progress and the fundraising about different projects we're involved with on campus and also volunteer opportunities. We are always looking for volunteers. We're always looking for additional board members too.

So we have the board member op. We have committees that we're continuing, uh, working on special projects, um, that certainly would be very important. And of course, on our website, we also have a donation button too. And that's one of the reasons what we are in the position. We are as one of three partners between SCOE and the Park Service on ourselves is a, as a nonprofit, we are allowed to ask for money.

Scoe can't ask for money. Yeah. The National Park Service can't ask the public [00:46:00] directly for money. And so it fell to us, um, after 2018 to re um, make ourselves from as, as, um. Nate pointed out buying GSEs to now developing buildings we're now developers. Yeah. Along as the same people who are doing GSEs too.

Um, and so that's really important. Another important thing to understand is since 1970, over 155,000, probably approaching 160,000 children. Most of them local have gone through this program, either the residential program or the day program, or the numerous summer camps that took place there on the West facility, and our intention is to make sure that another 160,000.

Enjoy this space. Mm. Thank you for that. 

Nathan Fairchild: Here's, here's what I would encourage, just thinking about this a little bit. [00:47:00] Uh, every school has a plan. It's called an lcap, and that plan is how they will spend their money and what they will spend it on. And there are always, uh, days, hours, meetings where parents can weigh in on that.

And I, if, if you're listening to this and you're a parent, I would encourage you to go to your school and ask when those meetings are occurring. I would jump in on those meetings and say, Whiskeytown Environmental School is going to reopen again, and are we prepared financially for that? Mm-hmm. Are we funding that?

Are we planning for that now? Can we start to fund field trips in general right now and maybe have that field trip fund that will then be converted into a Whiskeytown environmental school? Fund and parents have that opportunity to share that. And parents are definitely heard. In fact, often at these meetings there aren't that many parents.

So if you're listening and you go into one of those meetings, you have a voice representing if parent community for that entire school. So feel free, [00:48:00] jump in there and have kids going on field trips, have the funds there and ready to go because that is one of the the adaptations that we'll need. It's time to come back.

And people aren't used to the fundraising, people aren't used to having those funds. And in most schools, some school districts are paying for the entire week and the parents don't have to pay anything. So I think districts can look at their budgets and see what they can do, and parents can support that.

And teachers too. 

Speaker 6: Thank you for sharing that. 

Jenn Cobb: Yeah. Uh, speaking of the 160,000, um, students, I actually have a, I grew up in the Fresno area. And I have a mentor who came to WES Camp when, and she grew up in the Bay Area. So she came to WES Camp when she was a kid and she always instilled like a love for nature with me.

And when I told her that I had moved up to Shasta County, she said, oh, I went to WES camp. You've ev if you've ever heard of it. That was my, that's where I got my love of birds. And you know, she told me all of these wonderful things about WES Camp. So it's kind of fun [00:49:00] to. You know, just see the impact that WES Camp made on me from a mentor before I even, you know, knew anything about it.

So, you know, just, and she's in her, I think, mid to late fifties now, so just the, you know, effect that it's had on her has been generational and it's trickled down to her daughter. So, yeah, it's a core memory for 

Maggie Joyce: a lot of, a lot of youth. I mean, it definitely is a core memory. Yeah. So 

Nathan Fairchild: many people have a story.

Yeah. They have their own personal story with Whiskeytown Environmental School. I remember after the fire, I would go on the Facebook page and the questions were almost all the same. Which cabins burned? Did Cabin seven burn? Yeah. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. 

Nathan Fairchild: Because they knew their cabin and it was meaningful to them. So they all have their Whiskeytown environmental school moments.

Yeah. And one of the things I love is to hear those moments from. From the people who had their lives changed even a little bit. Yeah. By Whiskeytown Environmental School. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Yeah. Um, as we close at SCOE, we [00:50:00] have core values, and one of our core values is a focused on being hopeful and helpful.

And so there's two questions that we have for you. What is your hope for the next generation of students who will someday walk the trails of WES and who has been helpful to you in your journey?

Speaker 2: Okay.

To answer the first question, um,

Melinda Kashuba: well, maybe I'll answer, I'll answer the second question first. Let me ask it. Um, I would say, uh, we stand on the shoulders of greatness in terms of people who. Our spokespersons or were spokespersons for the natural environment. And I think of someone like Jane Goodall who recently passed away last fall, and I think of her quiet, continued dogged [00:51:00] determination to get the word out about conserv.

And she was operating a time decades ago. I grew up watching the National Geographic specials. Yeah. And remembering a number of hers from Africa, thinking she is, um, like she's pushing a rock uphill. That there are all the reasons why different countries wouldn't want to value their will, their wildlife or their environment because they wanted to develop.

But her, her still calm voice of just insistence created a worldwide movement. And so that's something that inspires me, that individuals, people, you know, like I said, we're, we're five volunteers. All of us are teachers in our background. Uh, we didn't really know anything about development or marketing or fundraising, but we've learned a lot in a couple of years.

That inspires me, makes me think we can do this. When I walked through the halls to come up here for this interview this afternoon, I saw emblazoned signage [00:52:00] make it happen. Yeah, we are gonna make it happen. This is going to happen. WES is coming back. The residential program is coming back in terms of hope for students in the future.

Um, boy Outdoors is, is a healthy place to be both physically and mentally and spiritually. And I would hope that the coming generation that will be our leaders in the future and our public land stewards will value our national parks and our state parks and our local parks, our regional parks as well.

And, uh, lobby for them. Yeah, educate others about them and the importance of them that they will remain for generations to come beyond them. So that's why we stand on the shoulder of greatness. So the generation that we're raising right now. We'll, we'll be the ones, the leaders of the future and that's what I would want to impart to them.

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. [00:53:00] How about you, Nate? 

Nathan Fairchild: Well, I think we're all standing on the shoulders of WES Community right now when we talk about greatness and we talk about this program coming back and when it comes back and it is when we're, we're way beyond if 

Speaker 2: when 

Nathan Fairchild: it comes back. The efforts of this group will go down in history and they will be talking about this group 50 years from now.

Give me a moment on that one, right. I think when I think about people that matter, I picture, I picture this lady, this lady I knew who was my boss at the Monterey County Office of Education, and she's standing in a Redwood Grove. And it's dim in there, even though it's bright sunlight outside. The kids have come into this redwood grove and it's very dim, and they've settled down and they get kind of quiet because of this dimness and this magic of this spot.

And they look up and standing in a beam of light is Laura Lee link and she's holding an inflatable globe and she reads us this beautiful [00:54:00] palm about the earth and how special and unique it is, what an oasis in space this planet is. And they all. It could be as many as 180 kids. You could have heard a pin drop because they are so riveted, because she's speaking from her heart.

This is not an act. She's not doing this for the kids to play, pretend, and then go back in the office. She feels this, and she instilled that in the entire staff as my first outdoor education job. Um, back in the eighties and without Laura Lee link and others like her, I wouldn't be here today. Um, able to circle back to my original career is such a beautiful thing for me, so she inspired me to want to be that person, but to speak from my heart, to speak honestly and openly about how I feel and when the kids leave Whiskeytown Environmental School. I hope that they leave with two things. I hope that they leave feeling connected [00:55:00] to this planet, to this earth, to the trees and the grass, and the water and the air. I hope they feel that connection in their souls. And I also hope that they walk out with a way of addressing the world that is rooted in reason and the way that science operates.

That we look at data and evidence. And when we do that, we can predict and we can explain, and kids will be predicting and explaining while they're at Whiskeytown Environmental School, when they leave, if they're connected to the earth and ready to make it. Their best effort to explain it based on data.

I think we would have a better world. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Wow. I mean, I, yeah. I'm gonna drop the mic there. Beautiful. Well, thank you guys both for being here today and sharing with us, um, the work that you're doing, the mountains that you're moving to get this institution back, um, for the students of Shasta County and.[00:56:00] 

For, for the community. I mean, I wanna go back to fifth grade and, and spend another five nights at WES Camp. Um, 

Nathan Fairchild: oh, we already have your reservation. Oh, perfect. It's approved. Okay. 

Maggie Joyce: Alright. Like book the cabin. We're going. But yeah, thanks you guys for coming and uh, good luck on continuing the progress.

Melinda Kashuba: Thank you, Maggie. Thank you Jenn. Thank you 

Nathan Fairchild: so much, Jenn, Maggie, 

Melinda Kashuba: and thank you Nate for those really kind words.