Thanks to the generosity of our local school district, the outdoor classroom at Devon Middle School now features a set of benches (with more to be added by the school at a later date), to enable students to gather and work around the wetland. A neighbour also contributed a table as an outdoor work space.
  

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While we work to raise more funds for our summer projects — such as an interpretive sign and more wetland plants at Devon Middle School — it is also time to begin work on our next project: establishing a nature trail at Garden Creek School.

Work began last week on clearing a narrow path through the vegetation...
 
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...using hand tools as much as possible to limit potential impacts from noise and pollution.
 
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Once a path had been cleared, a class of Grade 4 students from the school helped plant out a variety of seedlings of native New Brunswick tree species, donated by the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at the University of New Brunswick.
 
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These seedlings were planted along the sides of gullies to help protect them from further erosion caused by run-off water from the school grounds.
 
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Due to shading from the tree canopy, a number of these gullies remain wet throughout the year, necessitating the installation of boardwalks where the trail crosses these areas.
 
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Now that these boardwalks are in place, the next step is the formal establishment of the trail itself, using mulch and gravel generously donated by local businesses.
 
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If you're in Fredericton and have some time during the day (9am–4pm) over the next 2–3 weeks, we'd love to have you join us and contribute to building the trail. If interested, please drop me a line — we have tools for up to 8 people at any time.

It's a beautiful spot in which to work, and who never know what you might find...
 
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A busy week at the Devon Middle School outdoor classroom last week.

To kick things off, Roger — one of our summer volunteers — and I worked with the students to help dig up and transplant two of the three nursery beds of trees (about 35 white spruce) into the berms around the edge of the wetland.
 
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Once complete, the next step was to weed and double-dig the vacant beds in preparation for their conversion to a vegetable garden.
 
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In order to make most use of our limited growing space, we adopted Mel Bartholomew's square foot gardening technique. An overview of the approach is provided in the video, below.
 
 
As our beds are a little too large to allow one to comfortably reach into their centres, a wooden plank (along with some rocks) was positioned through the middle of each bed, allowing for easy access to either half.
 
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We divided our planting area into squares and marked out a grid using jute twine. Then, following Mel's advice for planting density along with generally accepted guidelines for companion planting, we planned out our beds as shown in the diagram below.
 
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[Numbers refer to plant density, i.e. the desired number of plants per square. Brown areas indicate the eventual location of trellises for climbing plants.]
 
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Then, it was time to plant!
 
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[All of our seed is from organically-grown sources, except for our onion and flower species.]
 
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We finished off the week by transplanting a dozen cattails and other wetland marginal plants within and along the edges of the wetland. These we sourced from one of the City of Fredericton's attenuation ponds: Over time, these ponds are colonized by wetland plants which the city removes in order to keep the ponds functioning optimally; by transplanting some of these plants we're giving them a chance to thrive and contribute to a habitat elsewhere, rather than become compost or landfill.

We'll monitor the progress of these plants over the next few weeks, with the intention of transplanting more later in the summer.

 
 

After the rain showers of the previous evening, Hana and I returned to the tree nurseries today to complete the weeding of the beds, this time in the sunshine.
 

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The good weather made for a leisurely evening and we had an opportunity to speak with Barb, one of the school custodians, about the outdoor classroom summer projects. It's wonderful to have so much interest and support from members of the school community.

One of the trees caught our attention: This tree, and only this one, had attracted dozens of ants to its upper branches. Any ideas as to why, foresters?
 
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All of the white spruce are in great shape and have grown substantially since last fall — we even have a couple of alders that have sprouted, too.
 
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Rain is forecast for the next few days, so we'll pick up again next week, planting out the trees from two of the beds around the constructed wetland, then turning the vacated beds into a vegetable garden in the weeks that follow.

Have a great weekend, everyone!
 
 

Now that Victoria Day has come and gone, spring is officially here — and it certainly feels like it! The sunny weather is quickly turning Fredericton a lush green, and today — May 20 — is our last frost day. Time to turn our attention to our summer field projects.

First on the list is the constructed wetland at Devon Middle School. When I last wrote about the project we had installed the chain link fence and seeded the berms. Since then, we've had a nasty winter with lots of snow, but the site has held up well with little signs of erosion and retaining the water as designed.

Here's a photo from earlier this morning:
 

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A quick glance into the water revealed that we already have a number of resident aquatic insects: water striders, water boatmen, and at least three families of water beetle, as well as the egg masses of some as yet unidentified organisms...

Summer will see us planting within the wetland with aquatic plants 'rescued' from the City of Fredericton's retention ponds — plants that would otherwise be dredged and composted — as well as on the berms and around the fence; we hope to make the plantings both a school and community event. Finally, the installation of a set of class benches and some student-designed interpretive signage will help complete this outdoor classroom resource.

Next is the creation of a low-impact interpretive nature trail at Garden Creek Elementary School. Unlike other schools where we are installing outdoor classrooms, Garden Creek Elementary School is fortunate to be adjacent to a piece of land that offers rich learning opportunities — including four distinct habitat types: forest, stream, grassland, and wetland — but the access is currently limited by steep slopes and lack of a defined trail. We plan to address this with the construction of a mulch/gravel trail and the installation of student-designed interpretive signage this summer.
 
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Finally, later in the summer we'll be offering a weekend environmental education camp for Grade 6–7 students at Yoho Lake. We had originally planned to offer the camp last fall, but had to postpone it due to scheduling and funding constraints. Fingers crossed for this year!
 
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Both Hana and I plan to field-test the camp curriculum during an upcoming overnight hike with staff and students of Nashwaaksis Middle School Hiking Club to Fundy National Park. I'll be sure to share any stories!

Please help us fundraise for these projects — every little helps! If you have a Twitter account (I'm @pathways), please click the button below to donate and spread the word. Thank you!
 
 
 

This afternoon, as an extension of our previous two classes on environmental history and values, I thought I'd try a little social experiment...

Historically, music has been, and continues to be, a powerful force with the ability to communicate all manner of social and political messages across generations (see this article by Doug Ramsey in the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education for information on environmental issues and song; a link to the full PDF article is at the bottom of the page).

In this vein, I set up an internet radio station on blip.fm for the ENVS2023 course. Starting today, and for the duration of the course, students will submit songs with an environmental theme or connection to be featured on the station. Students submit song information via posts to a discussion forum hosted in Blackboard. The following details must be included:

• Name of Artist
• Name of Song
• A quote from the song's lyrics connecting it to an environmental theme

As the station "DJ" (account holder), I will post links to these tracks on the course radio station home page [Note: blip.fm creates links to .mp3 content hosted elsewhere on the internet—it does not does .mp3 files on its own servers.] All genres / decades / artists are up for grabs; the more obscure the better!

The station integrates nicely with Blackboard too, with a direct link in the sidebar:
 

 
Station DJs receive "props" (votes of approval from other listeners in the blip.fm community) each time a listener favourites a track. Our goal is to inspire 100 props by the end of the course, and generate an entertaining—and environmentally relevant—playlist in the process.

Listen now: ENVS2023 radio

 
 

Day 2 of class and a showing of the National Film Board's "Suzuki Speaks"; the opening three minutes are shown below:
 

 
At the end of the film, the class had a number of questions/comments, which have been forwarded to the NFB—I'll post any responses I receive, here.

1. Will "Suzuki Speaks" be hosted online like the rest of the NFB's catalogue?

2. The film's message sometimes got lost in the visuals, which either dominated or seemed out-of-place on occasion; occasionally the film's soundtrack made Suzuki hard to hear.

3. In the film, Suzuki warned against the saturation of technology in our societies a number of times; however the film itself relied heavily on technology and digital special effects to deliver it's message. How much input did Suzuki have during the production of the film? Has he commented on the final product since completion?

It is often difficult to deliver environmental news stories and discuss research and reports as many of the messages are so negative: our global situation can often feel hopeless, leaving one feeling overwhelmed and paralysed.

Using the excellent "Taking Action" resources from Soka Gakkai International (Canada) as a starting point, I presented the following survey to my students in an attempt to gain insight into their viewpoints and assess attitudes with respect to global environmental issues. The graphic below illustrates the mean of the class responses:
 


It will be interesting to revisit these questions as the course progresses.

 
 

Today was the first day of teaching for both Hana and I this winter term. Hana is teaching a first-year non-majors Biology class entitled, "Microbes: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly", and I'm teaching a second-year Environmental Studies course, "Understanding Environmental Issues".

Following Hana's lead, I thought I'd post my students' responses to question, "what does the word 'environment' mean to you?" Although a second-year course, students from all years (1–4+) are participating and from a wide variety of disciplines across science and arts: e.g. forestry, biology, chemistry, political science, languages, and philosophy. We'll revisit these definitions at the end of the course and discuss any changes their authors might make to them, if any, and why:
 

A place in which a species lives where it takes advantage of all resources within the biosphere.

I consider "environment" to be our surroundings.

Mother Nature and her natural resources.

The environment is the natural world in which we live that surrounds us every day.

The environment is all the things surrounding us on the planet.

The natural and built world that people, plants, and animals inhabit.

Your natural surroundings.

The environment is the area which surrounds us, whether it be nature, people, etc., and is subject to manipulation.

Our surroundings.

Where humans, plants, and animals live; natural resources which provide essential tools for survival.

The world we live in and what surrounds us.

The physical area in which an organism lives.

Everything that surrounds me. An object's surroundings and the interactions between them.

Natural surroundings and our impacts or dependance upon them.

The areas in which life exists and resources are available.

The habitats and interactions within habitats in an area.

The environment pertains to the surrounding elements that are crucial for our healthy lifestyles.

The interaction between plants, animals, people, and their surrounding world.

That which is around us and interacts with us.

Living and nonliving things around you that interact with each other.

It surrounds us: from mountains to deserts, the environment is what makes that area unique.

All surrounding settings involving nature or otherwise.

Everything together: the land, sea, oxygen, plants, weather, etc... How they work together — cause and effect.

 
Happy New Year! 01/01/2009
 

Best wishes to everyone for a safe and joyful 2009. May our—and others'—food, shelter, and nesting needs be met!

[Photo: Local neighbourhood trail, College Hill, Port Moody, British Columbia]

 
Yes. 11/04/2008
 
 
 

It has been a few weeks since my last update on the wetland project, but we've made a few significant advances recently: the berms now sport a layer of fresh topsoil which was then hydroseeded, and the chain-link fence has been installed. We plan to beautify the fence somewhat come the spring by planting native vines and other species, as well as installing student-designed signage.
 

 
Within the next week or two we'll install a class set of benches within the fence perimeter and then that's it until the spring.

The Grade 7 students made it out earlier this week to tackle the weeding of the tree nursery beds, which, if you'll recall, looked like this:
 

 
...and now look like this:
 

 
Great job, everyone!

From the photo below, you can see that the trees have grown and filled out nicely, becoming bushier and more robust since their initial planting last fall:
 

 
Come the spring, a bed of two of these trees will be planted out around the wetland and elsewhere in the green space at the back of the school.
 

Anything's better than sitting in class—even digging in the dirt!

—Grade 7 student