Crawfordsville School third- through sixth-graders turned out Friday to work with members of the Calapooia Watershed Council to clean up and restore a stream bed that runs the length of the back edge of the school playground.
Students tore out invasive non-native plants, such as Scotch broom and Himalayan blackberries, and replaced them with nearly 200 native plants, including elderberries, sedges, Oregon grape, ponderosa pine, rushes, big leaf maple and Oregon ash from watershed council members’ Mike and Kelly Nehls’ Native Grounds Nursery located between Crawfordsville and Brownsville.
Teacher Dan Swanson, who helped organize the event, said that the children spent time in class talking about the differences between native and non-native plants before they started the project.
He said he plans more classroom followup to Friday’s activity, including a visit from the council’s new educational coordinator, Pam Archer.