Lesson Overview: Students will view a slide show that displays historical and recent photos of conditions in lower and upper montane Sierra Nevada forests. They will consider how current conditions differ from those of the past. A professional wildland manager will visit the classroom to discuss and answer student questions about historical and current forest conditions and the challenges of forest management.

Lesson Goal: Students will understand that forest management influences current and future conditions, and that in many locations, forests are very different from their historical conditions.

Objectives:

• Students will analyze photographs from “Fire in Sierra Nevada forests: A photographic interpretation of ecological change since 1849” by George E. Gruell to see how forests have changed over the past 150 years.
• Students will prepare questions to ask the fire manager.
• Students will listen to a guest presentation, then write a reflection on how montane forests of the Sierra Nevada have changed and how those changes affect forest managment.