Orienteering in Jamaica

We had selected D. Simpson's route for the final field practical examination. He read his instructions to the class and then all were responsible for drawing the route on their maps before beginning the ground-truthing. R. Stewart and S. Koenig added an additional control point to his map because of our knowledge of the terrain — to get them from a valley to the Troy-Windsor Trail more easily. Unfortunately, we failed to correct subsequent bearings, so when they drew their maps they were "off' from Mr. Simpson's map and the logical route in the terrain but had technically completed the assignment correctly. Important lesson for the instructors.

They set off in two teams to ground-truth the course. R. Stewart supervised while S. Koenig remained at Windsor House to grade final written exercises and prepare certificates. Quite amusing to hear them yelling at each other as to which side of the breadfruit tree the measuring tape must pass! Per R. Stewart, one team stayed exactly on the bearing lines, even though it took them along a rough talus side of a hill, while the other team recognized that the route would be more logical following the valley and made note that they would change the bearing to set the route.

They returned from the field about 11:30 and we had a final wrap-up, including a written evaluation of the workshop and the facilities. In particularly, we were interested in their evaluation of the theoretical (classroom) and practical (field) sessions, the facilities, meals, the Red Cross component and anything we could do to improve the course in future. Nearly all rated the workshop content as very good or excellent and made recommendations on improving the facilities — all the problems we recognize of hosting a workshop during building renovations. All found the workshop to be a valuable experience and enjoyed the expenence.

15. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This workshop was made possible through the support of grants to Windsor Research Centre from a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Challenge Grant (Project #2002-0265-000) and an Orvis Grant, administered by The Nature Conservancy-Jamaica. We also received support from Forestry Department's CIDA-funded Trees-for-Tomorrow project, which sponsored the six Forestry representatives and provided equipment and maps. S. Koenig would like to extend a special thank-you to R. S. Stewart for using his vacation time in Jamaica to co-teach this workshop. And finally, to the workshop participants, whose enthusiasm and interest made this workshop a pleasure for the instructors. We learned from them as they learned from us.