Meet Your Neighbors

Ryan White: Wild Classroom, Wider World

Photo: Bethany White

Dressed in well-used hiking boots and a thick pair of forest-green cargo pants, Ryan White is about to lead six middle-school students to the end of a stand of white cedars as part of their trail-making class. He draws his finger across the map, explaining how the trail will begin near the oak woodland and end near the high-quality calcareous wetland seeps on the other side of campus. That’s right — campus.

In his third year as naturalist for the Fox River Country Day School in Elgin, Illinois, White manages the school’s 25-acre natural area, which occupies about half of the private school’s grounds. The Forested Fen Sanctuary is one of only two forested fens in Illinois. (The other, Trout Park, was once connected to the fen before the I-90 expressway separated them in 1957.) A state Natural Heritage Landmark since 1989, the preserve is rich with unique species, including about half the state’s native white cedars.

White manages the property in consultation with other conservationists, enlisting the help of students, parents, and staff to clear invasive plants and collect and sow seed. His first year on the job, White organized the site’s first controlled burn in years, quickly rallying staff and obtaining clearances to catch the end of the burn season window.

For White, 26, who also teaches first- through eighth-grade environmental education, the campus is much more than a natural area. “It’s the ultimate classroom,” he says. Over the year, White’s students spend a full half of their class time outdoors interacting with the campus. They understand freshwater ecology by monitoring the streams, learn the tracks of animals from their actual prints, and uncover answers to more complex questions by spending time in wildlife habitat. When a group of students discovered a deer carcass on campus, White brought his students to see it. “We talked about the natural cycles, and about how, for scavengers, this is a part of their life as well. This is the deli section at the grocery store.”

Photo: Ginger Mack

Growing up outside of Washington, D.C., White loved taking walks and tracking deer in the park behind his house. “If other kids collected baseball cards,” he says, “I collected feathers and bones.” In the second grade, he was enthralled by My Side of the Mountain, a book that chronicles the adventures of a character struggling to survive on his own in the Catskill Mountains. White now reads the book to each third-grade class. During this unit, the class chooses a secret spot somewhere on campus where they learn how to build shelters, find edible plants and water sources, and, with supervision, create primitive fires. “It’s crucial that kids take their education beyond the classroom,” he says. And, he adds, no one minds getting dirty.

White’s passion for nature almost radiates off of him. With woods and wetlands for an office, he doesn’t consider much of what he does “work.” He did admit, though, that in whatever he calls his “free time,” he likes to paint landscapes and wildlife. (This includes doing scientific illustrations for major organizations such as The Field Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. See samples.)

With his life enveloped in nature, White feels a strong responsibility for it. “The environment is not a place that you go. You are in an environment. And you have a responsibility for that environment,” he says. When White considers his charge, he doesn’t feel overwhelmed. He just feels passion — the same feeling he hopes to instill in his students.

— Meghan Watt