Stryker, Roy Emerson. Rolling logs into river, near Littlefork, Minnesota. 1937. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017745098/.
Students will be shown a photograph of a pile of logs and consider how it might be transported. Next, they will be shown the photo of lumberjacks rolling logs into the river. Students will be led through a visual analysis of the image to consider why the method was used and how it might have impacted the environment. Then a video will be shown so students can understand the process more and develop additional inferences about the environmental impact. After watching the video, students will analyze several other images from the Library of Congress to determine the environmental impacts of other methods of transporting logs. Finally, students will determine which method they think is best and write a paragraph in support of it. By the end of the lesson, students will learn that every method has benefits and drawbacks, but it’s important to determine which one has the least impact on the environment.
Lumberjacks used rivers to transport trees to sawmills and other locations. This practice, while economical, significantly impacted the environment.
Source: https://www.mnhs.org/foresthistory/learn/logging
- What objects and people do you notice in the photo?
- What are the lumberjacks doing in the photo?
- How might the actions of the lumberjacks in the photo impact their rural environment? What evidence from the photo suggests those possibilities?
ELA Standard
2.2.4.1. Write to state a personal opinion, provide several reasons for the opinion, and include introductory and concluding statements.
Social Studies Standard
2.3.16.1. Describe ways that the local environment influences people and their actions and how human actions impact the local environment, including air, water, land, and wildlife.
Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
- Display an image of a pile of logs. Ask students how they think they should be transported to a sawmill.
- Display the image of lumberjacks rolling logs into the river.
- Use Think-Pair-Share, followed by a group discussion for each of the following questions:
- What do you notice?
- Why do you think the lumberjacks are using the river? What makes you think that?
- What impact do you think this has on the environment? What makes you think that?
- What do you wonder about when you look at this image?
- Tell students that they will watch a video to see different parts of the river transportation process. Play this video.
- Ask students to share any additional environmental impacts they hadn’t previously considered.
- Inform students that rivers are no longer used to transport logs in the United States.
- One at a time, display each of these images (Image 1 , Image 2 , and Image 3) of other ways logs have been or continue to be transported. For each image, use Think-Pair-Share, followed by a group discussion for each of the following questions:
- What do you notice?
- Why do you think the lumberjacks are using this method of transportation? What makes you think that?
- What impact do you think this has on the environment? What makes you think that?
- Tell students that they will write a paragraph that states which method they think is best for transporting logs and why.
- If needed, provide students with sentence stems, such as the following:
- Lumberjacks should use _______ to transport logs.
- One reason they should use _____ is ___________.
- A second reason they should use_____ is _________.
- A third reason they should use _______ is _________.
- For these reasons, ________ is the best method for transporting logs.
- When students have finished writing their paragraphs, debrief as a class. Ask students how many chose each method. For each method, ask students to share some of their reasons why they chose it. Point out that each method has its benefits and drawbacks.
- Extension opportunities:
- Read The Lumberjack’s Beard by Duncan Beedie and research what today’s lumber companies do after clearing areas.
- Use the Read-Write-Think lesson Listen, Look, and Learn: An Information-Gathering Process to have students research environmental impacts of transporting logs. They can also use it to learn more about what today’s lumber companies do.
Stryker, Roy Emerson. Rolling logs into river near Littlefork, Minnesota. 1937. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017745080/.