Matt Bacon Introduction

Well now that I've invited all of you to become contributors to this effort, I guess that I should introduce myself.

I grew up in the Forest Service, hearing my Grandfather's stories, my father's, and eventually my older brother's fresh ones. All this exposure created in me a real love and respect for the agency. Now as a senior in the secondary education program at the University of Montana here in Missoula, I've gotten to thinking about ways that the sorties of the Forest Service can be connected to the bigger stories of American History and Government. Watching my father working with museum effort I decided here was an opportunity to do just that, and in the process develop some valuable tools and resources that I, and other teachers around the country can use to improve their lesson. When my father asked me if I wanted to work with this group to do that I was intrigued, then he said the dreaded "conference call" and I panicked (how I hate those) I suggested this resource as possibly a better way to approach this effort, so here we are. I look forward to working with you folks.

I've included in this post an idea that I had while working on a project for a class. Below you will find a recording that I made as something of a pilot for a podcast that could become something that we could explore as a tool for teachers to spark discussions in their classes. It's an excerpt from Gifford Pinchot's book "The Fight For Conservation" and it clearly illustrates that we are still struggling with some of the same questions today that we were in 1910.