The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Back to Nature
Students, teacher work to preserve school's wetland
By Krystle Dunham, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: June 12, 2008
After Saline High School students identified an environmental problem at their school, plans are being made to improve the health of a local ecosystem with help from River Raisin Institute.
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The Monroe-based non-profit organization, dedicated to transformational education, received a $37,500 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
The River Raisin Institute was to find five to 10 schools in Southeast Michigan that were able to identify an environmental problem and a solution.
Saline High School was among the schools chosen because the school was built on a large wetland. Only one wetland pond remains on the north side of the high school. Holding ponds were created to replace the drained wetlands, but were never completed by replacing natural vegetation along the edges.
A wetland is an area of land with soil that is saturated for at least part of the year. For instance, a swamp or marshes are considered wetland areas.
Patricia Sanders, chairwoman for River Raisin Watershed was contracted to work with Saline High School and she said it's important to get the word out about the restoration efforts taking place.
"We need to get the word out and let people know what's going on," she said.
David Mellor, an agriscience teacher whose students identified the environmental problem, said the high school received $2,000 from River Raisin Institute.
The funds were used to purchase a digital camera, six waders and a global positioning unit to help with the assessment of the wetland behind the school.
Mellor's students also competed in an Environmental and Natural Resources Skills competition at Michigan State University in April, where they used the purchased items. Students participated in several categories, one of which dealt with assessing a wetland.
Sanders met with Mellor last November and the two toured the grounds. They found five holding ponds in front of the school.
Behind the school, they found a small wetland with plants growing around it and algae on the surface. The wetland is being polluted by plastic water and sport drink bottles, nutrient runoff, paper and plastic wrapper trash.
Floating in the pond were more than 300 tennis balls. The wetland is located next to the school's tennis courts.
"You could almost walk across the pond," Mellor said. "(The pond) was basically the dump for the tennis courts."
After the discoveries were made, Mellor, his students and Sanders began restoration efforts in April.
Students collected macroinvertebrates, which are small insect larvae and identified them. Macroinvertebrates indicate whether the water is relatively oxygenated.
High school sophomores Brent Clink and Kyle Naebeck said they observed several wild animals living around and in the pond. Bullfrog tadpoles, blue herons, flickers and snapping turtles were some of the animals they found.
Junior Bob Bianchi said he has enjoyed working on the school's wetland project.
"This is a different experience than in most classrooms," he said. "You're doing a whole lot more hands-on learning."
With the help of Aimee Kay, an area wetland expert, students found a variety of healthy plants surrounding the pond. Mayfly and stonefly, water strider, water mites, scuds and ouch snails were some plants found.
After searching the wetland, students took a tour of the holding ponds in front of the school. Students wondered whether the ponds could support fish, so Mellor recently took the class to the Saline Department of Natural Resources fisheries.
Mellor said the visit helped give students a list of several fish that could live in the ponds provided they had insects and insect larvae.
After the visit, students collected their data, along with photos of their project, and presented their material to Doug Bacon with the school's grounds crew.
Mellor said Bacon approved of the group's plans and will go to the district's school board to get permission to create a wetland from one of the holding ponds.
Plants would be added around one of the holding ponds in the fall and students would monitor for macroinvertabrates and amphibians once the plants are established.
Mellor and his students are also hoping to get permission and grant funding to put up netting by the tennis courts to reduce the number of tennis balls entering the wetland.
As part of the River Raisin Institute restoration initiative program, Mellor and his students will continue to work toward finishing project plans set for completion by December.
Bianchi and Clink said they are looking forward to working more on the wetland project in the fall and seeing the end result.
"Hopefully next fall, we will be able to do some more things to get the wetland where it's supposed to be," Clink said.
River Raisin Institute will stay in touch with Mellor and monitor the progress of the project and include it in future grants if additional monies are needed to extend the project to some of the other holding ponds.
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