On May 16 a very special event took place here in Austin, the ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open a large demonstration schoolyard habitat for Austin Independent School District. This project, led by the National Wildlife Federation, was created at AISD’s Science and Health Resource Center in South Austin.

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The habitat is intended to serve as a field trip location for students of all grades in Austin and other local school districts, a place to train science teachers in outdoor education and field investigation, a place to instruct AISD employees about proper maintenance of a habitat, and a place to give living examples of the wildlife-friendly native plants that students and teachers can use on their own campuses.

Why do outdoor-education sites like this matter? Schoolyard habitats have been shown to improve children’s academic success in reading, mathematics, science, and problem solving. There are physical and emotional health benefits, as well. Students who spend quality time outdoors are less at risk for obesity or diabetes. Additionally, they have improved self-esteem, are better behaved in the classroom, and experience relief from stress they might be experiencing at school or at home. In a nutshell, time spent outdoors connecting with nature makes kids happier, healthier, and better students. Add to all that the fact that as students directly experience the wonders of nature, they are more likely to become environmental stewards as adults.

This demo habitat was made possible in part from a grant from Toyota USA Foundation, as well as NWF’s partnership with AISD. Marya Fowler, Senior Education Manager for National Wildlife Federation, along with other members of the regional office, rallied additional support from the Austin school district, local businesses and environmental organizations, members of the community, and many volunteers. Anne Muller, the AISD Outdoor Learning Specialist, also consulted on the project and provided on-site attention to the young habitat throughout its development.

The habitat was designed by Environmental Survey Consulting, an Austin company known well for their design of the butterfly gardens at the Wildflower Center. The list of native plants is long, and all the hardscape materials came from local sources. Different ecological examples are displayed, including meadows, woodland habitats, and even a full-sun xeric area. The site includes benches, a water feature, and a rain collection system. Already present was a solar-power learning station, making this quite the science center. Additionally, there is built-in space for educational signs and an additional shade structure, to be added in the future.
This project could not have been done without the work of dedicated volunteers. Over many workdays spread throughout several months, Habitat Stewards, Master Naturalists, neighbors, AISD, and other community volunteers tackled the challenge of creating pathways, moving dirt and rocks, planting hundreds of plants, and more. Additional work was provided by Environmental Survey Consulting.

More than 100 people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, including representatives from NWF, AISD, the Children in Nature Collaborative of Austin, Austin Habitat Stewards, Capital Area Master Naturalists, Native Plant Society of Texas, and other groups, as well as many students, teachers, and families.

Even Ranger Rick made a surprise appearance!

Students from the nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary unveiled their chosen name for the habitat, “Discovery Hill: Bugs, Brains, and Blooms.” It’s perfect.

To give you an idea of how remarkable a change has taken place, take a look at the following Before and After pictures. Note that the Arizona Ash tree seen in the Before pictures was removed as part of the installation process. Arizona Ash trees are not native to Texas and are not long-lived — for this reason, the tree was removed so that other native trees could take its place.

After:

And After:

I love to report on such beautiful and successful transformations. This habitat is going to enrich the lives of many thousands of students in the years to come. But let’s not forget the wildlife that will benefit, too! Already butterflies, birds, bees, and other creatures have found the habitat, and it won’t be long before this young habitat is truly a haven for wildlife.

Note: For more information on the project and its development, please visit http://rockstoroots.wordpress.com/. If you’d like to make a tax-deductible donation to National Wildlife Federation to help with the next stage of the project (including educational signs and a shade structure), links are provided there.

I’m honored to have been a witness to the transformation of an ordinary, high-traffic area of an Austin schoolyard lawn to a most outstanding wildlife habitat, and I just have to show it off.

The Murchison habitat, with the school’s greenhouse
and solar panel in the background. Temporary fencing
helps discourage deer while young plants are growing. 

The habitat team at Murchison Middle School, led by science teacher Bret Korba, had the opportunity to participate in a small grant program being offered by National Wildlife Federation to several Austin-area schools. In order to receive the grant, each habitat team had to fulfill multiple requirements, including providing a detailed habitat design and implementation plan.

All the basic elements of a habitat are provided:
food, water, cover, and places to raise young.

The Murchison team hit the ground running, starting right away to make their project a reality. They selected a site near their school’s existing greenhouse and vegetable garden, they studied student traffic and water run-off across the site, and they contacted the district grounds department for project site approval. Throughout the process, they kept their administration and PTA informed and involved, soliciting assistance when needed.

Here’s the area before any work was done:

A blank slate, if ever I saw one!

Dedicated parent volunteer Narda Fisher created a beautiful design and wildlife-friendly plant list, and the team moved ahead with planning workdays, ordering materials, and gathering volunteers. The goal, aside from creating a functional outdoor learning space, was to have a successful wildlife habitat filled with almost all native Texas plants.

What I love about this design is that it shows how easily a colorful visual of a habitat plan can be created using just a simple program like Paint. The advantage to making a colorful representation of a school’s future garden is that you can share it with students, parents, and the community to encourage their enthusiasm and volunteerism, and you can also show it to local businesses and organizations to help solicit donations of materials or funds.

Right away, students became a part of preparing the beds, digging out grass, moving rocks, and marking pathways. Some of the students were members of the school’s Green Team, a large afterschool club that takes care of Murchison’s vegetable garden and sometimes other areas of the school grounds. Take a look at the thriving vegetable garden the students have been working on:

My stomach still growls with hunger as I remember the delicious smell of eggs and fresh herbs that teacher and habitat team member Benjamin Newton was cooking in the greenhouse for the Green Team students one day when I stopped by with some native seeds — yum. FYI, this student club meets twice a week, and their dedication and active involvement really shows. 

View of early progress

During school, several Murchison teachers brought their classes out to help with the garden. Additionally, a couple of volunteer Saturday workdays brought rapid progress to the final bed preparation and planting.

Same view, after habitat completion

In order to provide well-drained soil for the native plants, volunteers and students utilized some of the soil dug out from pathways and combined it with supplemental soil, the excellent Thunder Dirt from GeoGrowers.

A simple unmortared retaining well keeps the mounded soil in place while allowing lizards and other small wildlife to seek shelter. The rocks were collected from a school neighbor who was having construction done on her house. The single-shred mulch used to protect the plants and suppress weeds was donated by a school parent.

While the team sought out donations where they could, part of their grant funds went to purchasing plants, soil, decomposed granite, bricks, and the stock tank. The PTA assisted by paying for someone to level and lay down the brick path that guides most of the daily student traffic between their classes. For the interior habitat pathways, the habitat team chose decomposed granite.

Little touches really enhance the garden. A tall birdbath within the pond makes it easier for birds to drink, and rocks within the pond offer an escape route for any animal that might accidentally slip in. Ongoing residents of the pond include Gambusia, or mosquito fish. 

Broken pots create perfect little toad shelters, and there’s even a solar-panel water wheel in the pond. Nearby, birdfeeders and birdhouses adorn large trees.

Already, Murchison’s habitat team and Green Team are prepping new habitat beds and an area for a large rain tank. With such a variety of elements, Murchison teachers will be able to take their classes outdoors to utilize the new habitat for countless curriculum applications.

Schoolyard habitats like this are so critical for our children who, in a world of technological dependency and urban concrete, often do not have much direct exposure to nature. Studies have shown that outdoor time helps reduce childhood obesity and helps increase emotional health, academic success, and creativity. Their health and Earth’s future are dependent on kids spending time outdoors, connecting with nature.

It takes a team to create a new schoolyard habitat, whether it be small or large. The team can be made of teachers, students, parents, school staff, and/or community members, and working together, they can change the world, so to speak. But for a schoolyard habitat to be the most successful, it’s also imperative that the school’s administration offer positive support, that many teachers get involved, and that the school district help open doors to allow change and outdoor learning time on school grounds. 

But every school’s situation is different, and sometimes volunteers have a big role in helping a project like this succeed. If you have a chance to be a part of helping design, build, or maintain a school habitat or vegetable garden, I do hope you’ll jump at the chance and help kids have an outdoor space they can learn and benefit from.

I commend the Murchison habitat team and administration for sharing their love of nature with their students and getting them outdoors, and for creating a beautiful habitat that will help provide for wildlife for years to come. Murchison Middle School, congratulations!

If you are interested in creating an outdoor learning space at your local school, visit NWF’s webpages on schoolyard habitats for excellent resources such as how-to guides, lesson plans, and more.

It’s been a very busy but exciting week at school. Our big 5,000-gallon rain tank was installed!

It will collect water off our big metal roof, and the water will be used to support our wildlife habitat.

I was giddy, to say the least — this project has been in the works for several months now, and it was so rewarding to finally get to the big day. And lots of kids got to watch the process. I have to say that it was very cool to see that tank in the sky.

There’s still some landscaping and painting and whatnot to do, but the tank itself is completely installed. Now we just need rain!

No photos. Just a moment of sharing. Last week and today I presented a slideshow tour to teachers from different elementary schools and middle schools about the process involved in the creation of the habitat at my son’s school, and this evening I got to share the story with the latest NWF Habitat Steward trainees. It’s just been one of those feel-good days. How warm my heart gets when I take moments to really reflect on all the accomplishments of the past year and the goals of the year to come… the lives I’m touching by the work that I’m doing. Tomorrow I get to go out into the habitat with language arts students to find real-life examples of words based on the root “foli-” (leaf), and next week I get to spend time with Kindergarteners showing them the wildlife in our habitat and looking for signs of fall. It all just feels really good. Ya know?

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with the red tape I run into from time to time — or frustrated by little snags along the way. Sometimes I wonder how in the world I got into such an enormous project (the finger points right back to me). Thank goodness for those who help where they can or take on big, big jobs and ongoing roles (one of them reads this blog and he knows I’m talking mostly about him right now). Thank goodness for my family, who never complain when they have to cook their own dinner or get volunteered to volunteer. It’s certainly been a learning process, this project. But it’s all worth it, seeing those kids loving nature (and seeing all the happy wildlife, too).

As I turned into the school driveway this morning, I was thrilled to notice a beautiful scene from far away — it was our habitat! It’s really something when a garden grows big enough to be an eye-catcher.

Not only that, but it’s teeming with wildlife. The Queen butterflies ruled the habitat — I couldn’t count them, there were so many.

In the sun and the heat, the Texas natives put on a rainbow-colored show.

Can you believe this garden is only 3 months old? Click the link above to see it back in March.

Aside from all the butterflies, there were bumblebees and honeybees, an assassin bug with its prey, a bird visiting a birdbath, and so much more. The students and teachers are going to be in for such a big surprise when they come back to school in August!