2025 Fall | FIT-Focus

🌲 What is FIT-Focus?

Ready to take your teaching beyond the classroom? Step into the forest with FIT-Focus this fall! The Forestry Institute for Teachers (forestryinstitute.org) offers FIT-Focus, 3-day professional learning experiences designed for both formal and nonformal educators. Held over a weekend (Friday–Sunday), each session focuses on a specialized topic in forestry and natural resource management, blending engaging, field-based instruction with real-world insights from subject-matter experts.

Whether you're looking to deepen your content knowledge, explore new environmental education strategies, or connect with like-minded educators, FIT-Focus provides the perfect setting — outdoors, in the forest.

🫵 Who Can Attend?

FIT welcomes all active California educators. Past participants have included TK-12+ credentialed educators, preservice teachers, nonformal educators, administrators, and program leads.  Whether you're a graduate of FIT's summer sessions, or new to the program, you'll build a rich community of learning with peers from across the state at FIT-Focus. Please review FIT's FAQ page. 

🧭 Which Session(s) Should I Attend?

Each FIT-Focus session leverages local expertise and credentialed instructors to explore forest ecology and management concepts with participants. Over Participants receive environmental education training and targeted support to design a personal Mini Curriculum Project related to the topics covered in each session. Sessions offer 19 hours of PD instruction

Apply by September 30th - $60 registration covers: Meals, lodging, teaching materials and resources.

(1) Nevada County FIT-Focus: Tools of the Trade  | Oct. 10-12

Hosted near Nevada City, CA in the Sierra Nevada mixed conifer.  Get familiar with the tools, techniques and metrics that foresters employ to assess forests and make informed stewardship decisions.  Learn how to collect foundational tree data using a range of tools, techniques and sampling methods, then work together to analyze and interpret the results.  Cultivate your forestry education skillsets with:

• Nature Journaling and forest observation skills

• Our Forests curriculum training

• DIY forestry tool creation on a shoe-string classroom budget

(2) Plumas County FIT-Focus: Tools of the Trade | Oct. 17-19

Hosted near Meadow Valley, CA in the Sierra Nevada mixed conifer.  Get familiar with the tools, techniques and metrics that foresters employ to assess forests and make informed stewardship decisions.  Learn how to collect foundational forestry data using a range of tools, techniques and sampling methods, then work together to analyze and interpret the results.  Cultivate your forestry education skills with:

• Nature Journaling and forest observation skills

• Project Learning Tree Green Jobs training

• DIY forestry tool creation on a shoe-string classroom budget

(3) Mendocino County FIT-Focus: Disturbance Ecology | Oct.31-Nov. 2

Hosted in Hopland, CA in Mendocino County's oak woodland and rangeland communities.  Explore the disturbance ecology of these systems and what land managers are doing to conserve them.  Learn how natural resource professionals collect and use data related to fire, insects, disease and other disturbances to inform land stewardship.  Cultivate your forestry education skills with:

• Nature Journaling and forest observation skills

• Project Learning Tree, Fireworks, and Investigating the Oak Community training

• Acorn weevil investigation

💡 Perks of Participation!

Participants Receive:

• 19 hours of professional development instruction

• Access to environmental education curricula (PLT Green Jobs, Our Forests, Nature Journaling) and focused pedagogy connecting field learning to NGSS, CCSS, and CTE standards

• Opportunities to connect and grow with the FIT community, natural resource experts, and education peers

• All-inclusive experience - Meals, lodging, teaching materials and resources

• $75 curriculum project stipend post-session

• Exclusive discount on FIT Summer 2026 registration

Field-based learning that cultivates meaningful connections between:

• Environmental Education Curricula (see session info above)

• Next Generation Science Standards

• Common Core State Standards 

• Career and Technical Education Standards

• California's Environmental Principles and Concepts

• Climate Science Education

🤝 Program Expectations

All participants agree to:

1. Attend entirety of program - plan your arrival and departure accordingly

2. Reside onsite in provided lodging, camping, or RV spaces.

3. Actively engage with planned programming (on/off-site activities and instruction)

During a session expect:

• Vehicle travel to off-site, field location(s); routes sometimes take winding roads (Mendocino session only)

• Mild/moderate walking on/off established paths and uneven terrain

• Outdoor instruction in variable environments and potentially inclement weather

• Limited cell service/internet access (site-dependent) 

IMPORTANT 👁️ 👁️ Please Read Before Registering  

FAQs and Session Information

FIT is supported by the California Society of American Foresters whose mission is to advance sustainable management of forest resources through science, education, and technology; to ensure the continued health, integrity, and use of forests to benefit society in perpetuity.