host posted on February 13, 2009 09:33
In this time of America’s children suffering from nature deficit disorder, Elgin High School’s environmental science team, Deb Perryman, Brigid Trimble, and Barbara Roth, ensure that no child is left inside. They are outside in their 45-acre nature area of oak woodland, stream corridor, and a rare fen community collecting water quality data, removing invasive species, and teaching younger students the importance of caring for nature.
On February 13, 2009, Tallgrass Restoration and the EHS environmental science team and students spent the day clearing invasive species in their outdoor classroom. The volunteer workday saw Tallgrass staff, restoration technicians, project managers, and administration staff, working along side the kids removing buckthorn, honeysuckle, and other invasives from the oak woodland that runs along the Poplar Creek. The woody vegetation was then dragged into brush piles and burned. Before coming outside, the students had a quick botany lesson from Mark Micek, Tallgrass project manager, on the woodland plants that are found in their woodland.
It was a beautiful winter day, 38F, sunny with low winds. Once foreman Willie Bridgeman got going with the chainsaw, the piles of brush really built up. Willie and Clayton Wooldridge worked to clear out the area around an old oak and provided the students with lots of work. At the beginning of the day, Tallgrass staff was a little worried, where do we get started? What type of work should the students do (or not do!)? How to assign the work to do? You see, we were worried about working with 150 students. Would they dress appropriately, would they get hurt, no swearing from the crews; but you know what? It was great, the foreman even stated that this was the way to speed up clearing work; you get an army of kids to do the dragging! All in all, Tallgrass and EHS student cleared an acre of oak woodlands, created new friendships, and had a lot of fun.
EHS believes in service learning and outdoor education yet in these uncertain economic times, EHS is struggling to trim their commitment to its service learning programs. If you are interested in learning more about what these amazing women do everyday in their classrooms.