San Juan String Band<\/a> has been doing just that for the better part of a decade. And its members are as passionate about the environment as they are their music.<\/p>\nFounded 10 years ago by Forester Sally Zwisler, the group of San Juan National Forest employees and volunteers brings the woods into schools and other programs. Band members Laurie Swisher, a forester and founding member who plays guitar and vocals; Joni Vanderbilt, a hydrologist and another founding member who plays mandolin and vocals; SJNF volunteer Joan Green, who is the group\u2019s songwriter and plays ukulele bass; and SJNF volunteer Carol Calkin, on the fiddle and vocals, have been playing as a quartet for about 2\u00bd years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it started as a way to get kids in particular, but we also do programs for families, to connect them with the agency and with the outdoors, because you can really target a lot of people when you\u2019re doing a school program when you have 400 kids. You can teach a lot through music,\u201d said Swisher, a 34-year employee with the Forest Service. \u201cAll of our songs are always about the environment and being a good land steward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swisher said the changing nature of the Forest Service is another reason the four work so hard to connect with people outside the agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that when we got rid of the Forest Service presence in the campgrounds, we lost that opportunity to engage with the public in a positive way,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I was little and we used to go camping in the forest, I was so excited every night when the ranger would come, even to collect the fees, because you could ask them questions: What did you see in the woods today? Could you tell me about this or that? And without having that anymore, we\u2019ve lost that ability to connect in a meaningful way. So being able to do that through music is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
And making that connection with kids is something they put a lot of effort in. The music they play is bluegrass and old-time tunes, and the women use props onstage, including trees and stuffed animals, and wear a variety of hats to add to the educational component of the shows, while making it fun.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the occasional Smokey Bear cameo.<\/p>\n
As the band\u2019s songwriter, Green knows how to keep it light and catchy \u2013 and funny. She said she\u2019s been writing songs for a long time, but \u201cI\u2019ve only been showing them in public recently.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had written a song called \u2018Humidity\u2019 some years ago that some friends suggested I play for these guys before I was a member of the band,\u201d she said. \u201cI played it for them and they wanted to do it, which I was thrilled about.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when the invitation to join the band happened, she was surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked me to join them and said, \u2018Would you play bass with us?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Sure,\u2019 and hung up the phone and said to my husband, \u2018I\u2019ve got to learn to play the bass!\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s this sense of humor and ease between the four that makes it seem like they\u2019ve been playing together a lot longer than 2\u00bd years.<\/p>\n
While Swisher and Vanderbilt said there are other bands throughout the Forest Service \u2013 although no others in the Southwest \u2013 the group takes their audience into consideration when planning their shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that\u2019s unique about us is that we tailor our performances to the audience and age group,\u201d Swisher said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a different set of songs, for example, if we\u2019re performing for a preschool versus elementary school versus junior high or a family gig.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Juan Strings Band has also been involved with the Bluegrass Meltdown, Durango\u2019s annual festival held in April. The group mainly participates in the festival\u2019s \u201cBluegrass in the Schools\u201d program.<\/p>\n
The women said they perform their shows free of charge but ask that their hosts provide the sound system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a labor of love,\u201d said Vanderbilt, who has been with the Forest Service for 25 years, 10 of those with the SJNF. \u201cThe Forest Service supports it, but we don\u2019t have much funding for it, so we just kind of get by and put it together where we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Challenges aside, the women said the San Juan Strings Band\u2019s mission of education of connection is what keeps it fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of getting the Forest Service out into the public and having kids aware of who they are (is important),\u201d Calkin said. \u201cAs a teacher, there are so many songs that we do that tie into the science curriculum and really make things a lot more fun for kids to join in with us. It\u2019s a great way to share music, and it\u2019s also a great way to share the love of being outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n
katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n
On the Net<\/h4>\n
For more information about San Juan String Band, visit
\n https:\/\/bit.ly\/2xuLnig
\n .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
connect San Juan National Forest with public<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5961,5843],"tags":[1167,13,559,199],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-99369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-entertainment","category-living","tag-exclude-homepage-video","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-music","tag-san-juan-national-forest"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99369"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=99369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}