Rebuild revealled to students expecting rustic facilities and accommodations
When NAIT instructor Rodger DeChamplain (Forest Technology ’92) first arrived at the Kidney Lake camp as a student in the fall of 1990, it was what could best be described as a rustic learning environment.
“We had cabins that were heated by wood,” he says. Splitting logs to stay warm at night was a daily chore shared by classmates after full days of learning in the field.
Fellow instructor Ashley Lawson (Forest Technology ’99) also recalls digging six-foot pits in the ground to keep their food cool and away from critters, because of the lack of electricity at the site for refrigerators.
“It was a lot of work,” she says.
Thanks to a significant investment from West Fraser through the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta, those student rites of passage are now a thing of the past.
This summer, the camp, located 50 kilometres northwest of Whitecourt, underwent significant changes. A class of 48 first-year Forest Technology students arrived in September anticipating lodgings and facilities originally built in the ’70s and ’80s. Instead, they were pleasantly surprised to find modular units, including 14 four-room bunkhouses, three classrooms and a food storage building.
“I was expecting a wood-fire heated, one-room cabin,” says student Arianna Dunham. “I was excited when I first saw the new amenities.”
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Upgraded camp a "different kind of reality"
The Kidney Lake camp is essentially a classroom in the wilderness.
“You literally go get your field gear on, and you head out into the forest,” says Lawson.
Students spend upwards of five weeks at the camp at the start of their first semester, learning in a richly biodiverse environment. They practise the fieldwork skills they’ll need to land a job, taking tree measurements, identifying plants, and working as a team in remote forest areas.
For some, it is also their first time away from home, so they learn to cook meals together and share chores – often leading to lasting friendships.
While the learnings have remained in step with the needs of industry, the camp itself had fallen behind.
“Now it's a much different kind of reality, as opposed to what it was when I was a student,” DeChamplain says.
In his view, the off-grid camp now better reflects the modernized nature of industry. Current field amenities tend to have electricity, and with that fridges and microwaves. Cabins and learning spaces are temperature controlled, with no need for chopping wood. Once all upgrades are completed there will also be internet, allowing students to stay connected with families during their stay.
These are luxuries DeChamplain could only have dreamed about when he attended the camps. For today’s students, however, they’re essential to a learning experience that will better position them for success in careers to come.
More inclusive living spaces
Those “luxuries” are also more inclusive. Before the rebuild, students had to live in close quarters, with up to four people per cabin. Now, students now have their own 100-square-foot room. Dr. Agatha Ojimelukewe, dean of the School of Energy and Natural Resources, hopes this sort of change will help broaden interest in the program.
“Providing this space, it’s like night and day,” she says. “The difference means that we will be able to ensure that more women and women-identifying folks have greater, more diverse representation in the program.”
Along with the added creature comforts, that privacy appeals to students like Dunham. “I really like the idea of having a space to yourself just to wind down after the lab days.”
Comparing the experience to her own, Lawson sees the changes at Kidney Lake as fundamental to providing students with what they need to make the most out of their time at this unique facility.
“They're constantly learning when they're out here together.”
And now students can focus on learning in greater comfort.
“The camp they experience [now] is going to be the best time of their lives,” says Lawson.