Submitted by Erica Johnson, West Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative
Grant Middle School students have been working at Bridgeton Township Park and boat launch since 2016 to enhance the park with new plantings. They planted a rain garden in 2016, and 30 trees in early 2017. In May 2017, utilizing funding from the West Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative and the Muskegon River Watershed Assembly, students researched Michigan native plants, designed another rain garden, and then installed it. In all, they planted 712 plants and bushes in the park, including Marsh Blazing Star, Joe-Pye Weed, and Cardinal Flower.
I love that this project spanned several years and involved various plantings in a community space. Were different students able to participate each year and are there plans for new projects in the future?
Wow! What an awesome community project. Have subsequent groups of students noticed an improvement around any of the rain garden benefits that were initially identified?
This is very cool. Like Sarah said, it’s really impressive for a project to span multiple years. I imagine this would build community in the school, though, as students can point to plantings older students/siblings have done and then see how their plantings added to the space. Very impressive amount of plantings!