A total of 177 fifth-graders from local elementary schools on Monday participated in a “Conservation Camp” held Monday at Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park in Limestone.

The youngsters learned about how aquatic and other animal ecosystems work, about Cherokee Indian history, how to prevent forest fires, and even a mythic tale of why possums have hairless tails.

The students for several hours rotated among 10 makeshift “teaching stations” scattered throughout the park, gathering in small groups beneath shady trees and on the front porch of a tiny home similar to the one that famous frontiersman Davy Crockett lived in as a boy.

At each station, a group of about 20 students listened to one or more adults expound on the environment or Tennessee history.

Students learned about fossils, pelts and skins, geology, rocks, Cherokee history, aquatic life in the Nolichucky River, small regional mammals, how early settlers made efficient use of the various parts of animals they hunted and caught, the human-made and other challenges that migratory birds face, controlling outdoor fires, the importance of recycling, and hazardous household chemicals and their proper disposal.

The youngsters also played an innovative and educational school-yard game, and looked at darters, shiners, and other fish collected from the bottom of the Nolichucky River in the park earlier Monday morning.

Ancient Cherokee Tale

Franci Sloan, a museum educator for Hands On! Regional Museum in Johnson City, sat among 21 kids gathered on the front porch of the presumed replica of Davy Crockett’s home.

She appeared to hold many of the listening fifth-graders spellbound as she told an ancient Cherokee tale of why possums have hairless tails. (The short answer: “the cricket barber” supposedly trimmed the hair off of a possum’s tail long ago to teach
him a lesson about his vanity.)

Sloan also told the kids that the Nolichucky River translates as “river of death” in the Cherokee Indian language, and it was given that name because it has a riverbed, whirlpools, and other deceptively powerful currents that are “always changing.”

While Sloan spun the Cherokee yarn, some 75 yards away, Dana Ball, from the Cedar Creek Learning Center, had her group of students try to run single file through fast-moving skip ropes without making contact with the ropes.

The ropes in constant motion were supposed to represent telephone wires that migratory birds encounter in their paths.

“The kids pretend they’re birds and go through an obstacle course of (symbolically represented) telephone wires, high-rise buildings, contaminated food on the ground, and a cat,” Ball said.

The children hurriedly picked up blue tokens located near one student with a stuffed cat who represented the real-life predator.

The tokens represented contaminated food on the ground.

“If they got two blue tokens, they were told they were sick from (eating food with) too many toxic pesticides or herbicides,” Ball said.

“If they got three tokens,” Ball continued, “they ‘die.’”
Ball recommended the students or their parents attach bells to the collars of their pet cats as a warning system for birds.

Showing Fish From River

Yet another 75 yards away, at a station located near the banks of the Nolichucky River, a group of students stood before two clear-colored tanks filled with water and fish gathered from the Nolichucky River earlier in the day by Clint Jones from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Jones is involved with watershed restoration.

Jones showed the youngsters darters, shiners, and sucker fish he caught in the river, and talked about insects, fish and other aquatic life, and the importance of clean bodies of water. He also cited fish that are either “pollution-tolerant” or “pollution-intolerant.”

“The Nolichucky River may look dirty because of the heavy silt load,” Jones later told a reporter, “but it’s not in too bad of shape. The fisheries communities (in it) are in good enough shape.”

He added, “We could always do better, but we could do a lot worse, too.”

Conservation Camp’s sponsors were: Keep Greene Beautiful, Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance, TVA, Unaka MECO/SoPakCo, and DTR Tennessee Inc.
In addition, the Greeneville Junior Woman’s Club provided money for T-shirts given to the fifth-graders.

Jennifer Reynolds, who is the director of Keep Greene Beautiful, organized “Conservation Camp,” which is held annually.

She said a total of 510 fifth-graders from several area elementary schools will have attended the event when it concludes on Wednesday.

Conservation Camp was originally scheduled for Monday, today, and Wednesday, but today’s sessions were postponed one day because of feared heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Katrina, Reynolds said.