The SWWD Campus Greening Program is now in its sixth year as a partnership with the South Washington School District. Initially a pilot program of alternative stormwater compliance, the Districts agreed to work together to transform large areas of turf or degraded school properties into ecologically functioning natural communities instead of more conventional stormwater management. The program has been both a successful model for supporting stormwater and habitat and a great way to bring hands-on environmental learning into the classroom.

The initial program was implemented at 7 schools in the district in collaboration with teachers, principals, and facilities staff, where more than 50 acres received enhancement or restoration of prairie, savanna, woodland, and wetlands. The transformation of the landscape back to natural areas has a wide range of benefits not limited to stormwater.  Some of the benefits provided by these landscape changes include the following:

• Food for pollinating insects
• Habitat for insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals
• Building soils and resilient natural communities captures and stores carbon
• Reduces or eliminates the need for fertilizers and uses less pesticides/herbicides
• Provides greater stormwater infiltration and transportation due to deep roots and surface vegetation
• Reduces stormwater volumes and captures nutrients that cause negative downstream effects to local streams and lakes
• Rebuilds structure and biological diversity within soils

Beyond the environmental benefits, Campus Greening has become an educational incubator as students engage with these natural landscapes right outside of the classroom. The restored landscapes, only recently established, provide invaluable opportunities to learn about the natural world through hands-on experiences. As such, the program creates comfort with the natural world, provides laboratories for resiliency planning, offers science learning through direct observation, and will play a role in demonstrating care for the natural landscape for future environmental leaders.

As a part of the Campus Greening program, the SWWD has been working with Carpenter Nature Center to develop and implement hands-on learning through an experience-based six-week watershed and water quality initiative. Taking place in 6th-grade classrooms, the program is able to reach all students attending schools within the watershed district. Built upon Minnesota State Standards, the in-classroom and field programs build upon the science education within the district by focusing on topics like nutrient flows, pollution, and wildlife habitat, within the context of a watershed.

The initial installation of the native plantings provided some, but limited interaction for students that included tree planting, interactions with grazing goats, observation of prescribed burning, and broadcast seeding. As the areas are established, SWWD staff and teachers continue to find more and more ways to engage students in field learning. Individual teachers are bringing their own students to the field to conduct observations on bird and insect behaviors, plant interactions, and seasonal changes. At Lake Middle School, where prairies are well established, students can collect and distribute seeds for their school and others within the program. Through a BWSR HELP Grant, classroom “greenhouses” at Lake Middle School are giving students opportunities to grow plants from seed to continue to add diversity to the established prairies. Parents and teachers continue to develop and lead activities throughout the Campus Greening landscapes as well by working to establish pollinator gardens, growing and planting seedlings with students, installing bat houses in restored woodlands, and more.

News

We are updating our URL! Just in time for the season of change, swwdmn.org will soon become swwdmn.gov. SWWD was recently approved for a .gov domain, and we are excited to give our website some local government unit flair.