Morenci High School club boosts water quality

On Earth Day, 2008, the Green Earth Club of Morenci High School (GECKOs) cleaned up a local stream and a park. They are part of Bean/Tiffin Watershed Coalition and live near Morenci, Michigan, on a tributary of the Maumee River.

See their photos at

http://www.beancreekwatershed.org/cleanup08.htm

Some of these young people have been helping the creek since 2004. See their poetry and more photos at

http://www.beancreekwatershed.org/morenci.htm

from Florida - a Middle School garden on YouTube

I've made an exception to our usual Michigan focus, to highlight a video of a butterfly garden at Lyons Creek Middle School, Coconut Creek (Broward County) Florida.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CTjQRQ8TKQ

butterfly garden at Burns Park Elementary School

Parents and kids in the 'Penguin Club' have planted a butterfly garden next to the school building, in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA.

They planted about 250 plugs in October 2008.

See their photos at http://groups.google.com/group/burns-park-penguins-care-club/web/native-plant-gardening?hl=en

Kids gazebo at Mary McCann Park

Along with nature trails and native plants, this park includes a gazebo-style Teaching Station where kids can listen and learn.

It's located at Mary McCann Park, in York Township between Ann Arbor and Milan, MI.

link here

Here is a photo of the Teaching Station, sans roof and bench boards. The octagonal base is roughly 21 feet across. Three ranks of tri-fold benches will face the open area. The two curving, 5' x 30' beds lie downslope to right and left at a distance of about 30 feet from the teaching station's perimeter

.

STEPS for Kids at Pine Lake Village Co-op

Steps For Kids is a small nonprofit organization whose goals are grade school educational support and environmental education. It is based in Ann Arbor on the grounds of Pine Lake Village Co-op, but all activities are open to friends and neighbors. We are all volunteers; we have no paid staff.

These are pictures from late May, at which about 25 adults and children volunteered to pick up trash, plant native plants, and pull weeds around a freshwater pond. Everyone had a great time on a beautiful day with the rare opportunity to be inside the fence. Fishing for trash with little nets was the favorite activity of many kids. We've since had two more volunteer work days, and mid-summer pictures follow soon.

Please visit www.stepsforkids.org to see more of our activities, and to see how you can help us by donating gardening tools and supplies, your own time and skills, or much needed financial assistance.

(photos and write-up from Steps for Kids volunteers.)

Scout projects at Webster Church

Scouts from Troop 422 have built a shelter, raised beds and other amenities at Webster Church, near Dexter, Michigan.








(Photos by C.B.)

Wildflower Prairie at Ann Arbor Learning Community

Kids, teachers and parents at the Ann Arbor Learning Community have started a wildflower prairie with plants they grew from seed. They're hoping to attract butterflies and songbirds.

They started early in the season to remove turfgrass from their site. (I think this was in 2007)


(photo from K.K)

By July 2008, the prairie was looking terrific. (More photos coming soon.)

AALC is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, near State St. and Ellsworth Rd.