This year the students in the Carmichaels Area School District have been given a unique opportunity to participate in an interesting science project. With the facilitation of teacher Kevin Willis, they explored and completed a riparian buffer.
What is a riparian buffer? A riparian buffer, or stream buffer, is a vegetated area near a stream, usually forested, which helps shade and partially protect the stream from the impact of adjacent land uses. It plays a key role in increasing water quality in associated streams, rivers, and lakes, thus providing environmental benefits.
This project was a year in the making, and students were involved from the very beginning, starting with last fall when they had an outside field experience at Laurel Hill State Park. During this trip they had a kayaking/canoeing encounter, and, with the guidance of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat educators, they were better able to understand the project they would be working on. They saw a buffer and the types of trees and other plant life used to create such a buffer.
The students created the buffer for the stream at their campus at Carmichaels Area High School. They were very invested in this project and were excited to discover what was in the stream. The students attended a session in the beginning of April at Penn West (California) University to learn about the wildlife that may be present in the area where the buffer will be constructed.
Then the field day came. On April 12, the students gathered and completed the planting trees, staking and preparing the site. A procedure called stream shocking was done; this is done to determine the stream’s biodiversity and identify what species live in the water. Chris Ross, a Carmichaels alumnus was part of this process. As a former student, Chris wanted to give back as a mentor and help out a teacher who had been a mentor to him. This project was as important to him as it was to the students.
From beginning to end, the students followed their Environmental Action Plan for the stream, and this project will be monitored to make sure it continues to be a success.
Along with Chris Ross and Wallace and Pancher, a civil engineering and environmental consulting firm, there was assistance for this project from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Pennsylvania DNCR of Forestry, and Waynesburg University, as well as support from the Carmichaels School District teaching staff and administration. Willis shared that he would like to thank everyone involved for allowing the students an amazing learner-centered experience that will provide them an opportunity to build resilience as they investigate local environmental issues.
As we adapt to an ever-changing climate, it is our responsibility to recognize the importance of protecting our current natural resources. These types of projects are exactly what our students need in order to protect our planet moving forward.