On November 8, 2024, students from Banning High School’s 9th grade biology classes filed off their school bus. They followed a dirt path at the edge of Cienega Canyon Preserve in Calimesa to meet Rivers & Lands Conservancy staff. It was a cool winter morning, and the kids were subdued and still a little bleary-eyed from the early start to their day.
Staff gathered the 36 students for a quick review of the information that had already been shared with them in class, a safety discussion and then an overview of the day’s restoration work. First up was a leisurely hike up the trail to the coast live oak woodlands where students would gather acorns.
For many of these students, this hike out in nature is a first and they brightened, waking up to the world around them as they walked. Pointing out birds, insects, and plants that are new to them, their excitement rose as they reached the oak restoration site. Picking acorns became serious business as the kids examined their harvest. They would be testing these acorns for health before taking some back to class to germinate. They wanted the best batch possible.
After lunch, they inspected their acorns closely at a learning station before putting them in water to see if they would sink or float. Each of the groups had collected between 500-800 acorns and they guessed that 25-30% of them would sink, demonstrating that the acorn was still viable for germination. Acorns that had cracked, been damaged by insects, or were malformed floated in the water and the students were surprised to discover that 82%-90% of the acorns their group collected were healthy. One group noted on their observation and results sheet that their predictions were not close to the results. “We did better at picking acorns than we thought we would!”
At two other learning stations, students learned about “leave no trace” ethics and met live wildlife, including native reptiles and arachnids. Many of the kids were uncertain at first and had never been close to critters like these. Yet, as more of their classmates tentatively felt snake scales under their fingertips and then gingerly handled a gopher snake or carefully guided a fuzzy tarantula to stay within their palms, they broke into grins and laughter. It was a day few of them would ever forget.
The goal of Acorns to Oaks is to inspire local youth to connect with and care for nature through a combination of in-class presentations and hands-on field trips that meaningfully contribute to oak restoration. Cienega Canyon Preserve, where the field trips take place, includes 80 acres of valuable oak woodland habitat currently threatened by a combination of pests, drought, and invasive species.
Rivers & Lands Conservancy launched an Acorns to Oaks pilot program in 2015 with a single 9th grade biology class from Banning High School. This school year, the program served 540 students from Banning High School, Summerwind Trails Middle School in Calimesa and Palm Middle School in Moreno Valley. The program has reached approximately 2,280 students in its 10 years of serving local youth.
The Banning High School students who participated in the November field trip returned again on January 24, 2025 to plant germinated acorns. Then on March 11, 2025 they had the opportunity to participate in a service-learning volunteer event to water and weed seedlings in the coast live oak restoration area.
All who participated in the March event were excited to check on the seedlings they personally planted. In fact, several Banning High School seniors came on the trip as well to check on their plantings from their freshman year.
Not all seedlings survive but that does not seem to dampen the students’ spirits. Instead, they note the challenge of invasive plants that make it hard and at times impossible for the young oaks to thrive. They ponder the odds of an untended acorn to becoming an oak and are proud of their efforts to give seedlings and the oak woodlands their best chance at survival.
Rivers & Lands Conservancy staff are so grateful for their assistance in the work, but more than this, we are moved by the connection we see them make with nature. After all, the future of the oak woodlands and all the work we do will ultimately be in the hands of today and tomorrow’s youth.
Rivers & Lands Conservancy connects our community to natural, wild, and open spaces of Southern California through land conservation, stewardship, and education
Rebecca K. O’Connor is the Co-Executive Director of Rivers & Lands Conservancy, has an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from UC Riverside and is the author of several books on the natural world.
