It doesn't look like much now: a bunch of black plastic sheeting
spread out on the ground in a courtyard at South Eugene High School.
But by next summer, a group of students hopes to transform this
10,000-square-foot plot into what it looked like long before the
high school was built, before settlers started wandering into the
Willamette Valley.
Students from the school's environment club, with the help of local
adult volunteers and donations from area businesses, are creating
a wetland meadow filled with ash trees, tufted hairgrass, camas,
checkermallow and other plants native to the Willamette Valley. A
boardwalk will meander through it.
When completed, the landscaping in the East Courtyard will allow
students to walk right outside the doors of the science wing and
start studying wetland ecosystems and the plants common to them.
But students also are getting a hands-on look at wetland ecosystems
just by designing and building it.
"I'm learning a lot about the different plants that grew here in
the valley," says sophomore Melinda Russial, president of South's
environment club. "It's also going to beautify the school."
"I'm a naturalist, so this project appeals to me a lot," junior
Sarah Marshall says.
The natural wetlands project is part of a growing trend among schools
to move away from the "grass and concrete" landscaping that typifies
most public buildings toward more natural designs, says Becky Riley
of the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, which
is helping to sponsor the project and is providing technical assistance.
"We've all been snookered into thinking we need these incredibly
groomed landscapes, which often are really wasteful," Riley says. "We
want students, and the schools, to think about totally new approaches
to landscaping."
Artificial landscaping often deprives birds, mammals and insects
of habitat they need, she added.
A number of other schools have launched similar projects, says Riley.
In Boulder, Colo., elementary school students created an "outdoor
learning center" on 1.3 acres of the school grounds. The "Refuge" is
a similar project in Vancouver, B.C. Fox Hollow School in south Eugene
also has a small wetlands project on school grounds. And in England,
one-third of the nation's 30,000 schoolyards have been transformed
into natural landscapes.
"There's a worldwide movement under way toward the naturalization
of school grounds," Riley says.
Projects that involve some kind of stream or wetlands restoration
also have taken off over the past three years, particularly in Eugene-Springfield,
along with growing concerns among environmentalists, politicians
and government agencies about saving salmon and wetlands.
In addition to providing an ecology laboratory for students, natural
landscaping projects can cut down on maintenance costs and herbicide
use, Riley adds.
Most natural landscaping projects need little maintenance, such
as mowing, fertilizing, weeding, watering and mulching. At South,
crews currently have to bring a mower into the building and down
a hallway to get to the central courtyard.
The project has the support of school administrators and teachers.
Several local businesses are donating almost all the materials.
Teacher Betsy Halpern, who is the environment club's adviser, says
South Eugene's interior courtyard always was intended to be used
as an outdoor classroom for the study of biology and natural sciences,
but was never developed into one.
"This will be an ideal place to teach students about native plants
and wildlife, local ecology, water quality and pollution prevention," she
says. And it all will be within a very short walk from the classroom,
she adds.
Lynne George, South's co-principal, says the project offers students "another
type of science education" than what already is offered at South.
Most of the ground where South Eugene High School was built was
a "wet prairie" before people started settling in the area in the
1850s. This type of grassland once covered much of the Willamette
Valley, but less than a half-percent now remains.
In the 1950s, nearby Amazon Creek was turned into a channel to drain
water off most of south and west Eugene as part of a massive flood-control
project that included construction of several dams on the Willamette
River upstream from Eugene.
When the school was built in 1953, the wet prairie that remained
was covered with a layer of fill and then paved or planted with lawn
and nonnative trees and shrubs. As a result, little original habitat
remains.
In addition to the courtyard, students are creating a small "upland" habitat
in front of the school. There, they are planting a native ponderosa
pine that once was more prevalent in the valley, as well as vine
maple, oaks and Lewis' mock orange.
A small meadow with flowering plants may be developed later.
Students hope to expand the program to other areas of South Eugene's
campus in the years to come. That may include, if city officials
go along with it, removal of the concrete channel on Amazon Creek
on the western edge of the school grounds.
For more information about the South Eugene project, or other similar
efforts, call the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides
at 344-5044. The Evergreen Foundation is sponsoring the schoolyard
naturalization efforts in Vancouver, B.C. It can be reached at: (604)
689-0766 or by e-mail at infoBC@evergreen.ca. |
