Having a written education plan for you school forest is
a crucial step
in developing your 
school forest program. The school forest
education plan will act as the firm foundation the rest of your program will be
built upon. The plan will provide clear direction for development and
sustenance of the school forest program.
Completing a Needs
Assessment
Before starting to create an education plan, step back
and gather some information from educators, administrators, community members,
parents, and students in your district. A needs assessment can provide valuable
information on the opportunities and challenges of using the school forest. Use
the following example as a guideline to develop your needs assessment to
address your specific district’s needs.
Don’t forget there are free online tools to help you conduct your survey
as well that make it
easier to administer and tabulate the results of the
survey.
School Forest Needs Assessment.pdf
School Forest Education Plan
Template
The school forest education plan template provides an
established, approved format for school forest education plan development. The
template is available in MS Word and Adobe pdf format.
Wisconsin School Forest Ed Plan Outline.pdf
Samples of Approved School
Forest Education Plans
The following samples serve as examples for other school
forests developing their education plans. These samples are not perfect and
each education plan should be developed to uniquely fit the needs of each
individual school forest. Use the samples to guide your education plan
development and to generate ideas for your own school forest
Boscobel SF Education Plan_August 2010
Cambridge School Forest Plan
Deerfield School Forest Education Plan
Elmwood School Forest Plan
Superior School Forest Education Plan_Feb12
Tomorrow River School Forest Education Plan_Dec10
Grant Money is Available for
Developing Education Plans
Are you wondering how to find the time, resources, and
energy to develop this school forest education plan document? The Wisconsin
Environmental Education Board (WEEB) has grant money available for the specific
purpose of writing your school forest education plan. Up to $5000 is available
for staff and educators in your district to get together outside of contract
time to write the education plan. Visit WEEB’swebsite to learn more about the School Forest Education Plan Grant.
Contact Gretchen Marshall at Gretchen.Marshall@uwsp.edu or
715-346-2633 if you have any questions or need assistance with your education
plan.