Mucking Around for Good

I think that most people from North Idaho can say –and maybe should say—that they have pulled a lot of weeds. I guess that we are talking about common weeds that perpetuate in our yards because my farmer friends just spray them out. My morning glory, for instance, does better than my grass; in fact, I guess that in another week or two those lovely winding vines and white blossoms will once again crowd out my struggling green grass. No wonder it is called bindweed as it invades my garden and snakes up the underside of my spirea. I pull it and pull it but, my goodness, it is a persistent plant. Don’t get me started on the Chinese lettuce, thistle or salsify. I get focused in my battle against those invaders.

So would my Genesee students get into weeding as a service learning project? Years ago I actually began to work on creating a service learning project for my freshmen. The class walked with me to the new mitigation site. The highway department had just finished developing the four-lanes of Highway 95. In doing so, they destroyed a number of riparian habitat areas along the highway. Their replacement was a little more than three-acres along Cow Creek just to the south of town. In creating the area, Wildlands Inc. shaved the steep cut of the creek banks (as Elizabeth explained today), put in numerous rock barriers to prevent the water from cutting deeply again, left piles of dead trees (cut from the sides of the highway), and even created several snags . Then they planted thousand of trees, shrubs, grasses, and forbs and drilled four wells to run the sprinklers to keep it watered for the next two summers. Just recently all the old metal posts, PVC and sprinklers were finally removed—by the city, I suspect who may now be responsible for the area.

On the day we walked the site, my class watched the workmen line the creek bed with an intricate webbing system designed to prevent the Canada geese from eating the new plants before they had a chance to take root. Anyway, the site was teeming with possibilities for work that our class could do—a true learning project. We could create informational signs, plan for future up-keep, build bird and bat boxes, not to mention develop walk ways. The possibilities were endless—or so I thought. We walked back to the classroom, and I led students through a brainstorm session: what could be done there? But, to be honest, I brainstormed the ideas. Basically, I heard only my enthusiasm and student compliance—not their genuine interest or energy.

The long and short of my service learning project was that there wasn’t any student energy or buy-in for it. I learned a valuable lesson about packaging and selling to Genesee students that day. They weren’t going to volunteer for hard-labor or forward-thinking planning. Students need to develop ownership of and commitment to projects. Such buy-in cannot be generated by a teacher just because I am dedicated to treading softly and thoughtfully in our environment. I have to plan that sales-pitch carefully.

I walk the mitigation site nearly every day with my dogs. Unfortunately, the weeds have invaded. Hopefully, the forbs and grasses will be strong enough to defeat them since the task seems mighty intimidating. Today’s experience with the PCEI service learning did get me thinking, however. With better planning and with the help of other teachers, I may try to take care of our Genesee backyard this year.