Local resident, volunteer and past CeRSER president Randy Mandel instructs on planting techniques for plants provided by his place of employment, Rocky Mountain Native Plants of Silt.

Volunteers Swamp Wetlands

Modified from article by Amanda Holt Miller

April 14, 2005

Volunteers will converge at Coal Ridge High School Saturday. They will plant more than 4,600 native plants, saving more than $10,000 in unexpected expenses and bringing Coal Ridge students, parents and staff together.

When Garfield School District Re-2 had to rip the cattails out of a ditch along Highway 6 in order to widen the road, administrators didn't count on spending an extra $100,000 for wetlands mitigation at Coal Ridge High School, scheduled to open this fall. The mitigation project already has cost $60,000 and is expected to cost another $40,000 for planning and landscaping.

Instead of paying an outside agency to do all the work, administrators decided to make the project into a community-building experience for future Coal Ridge students, parents and staff.

Coal Ridge principal Jeanie Humble expected about 100 volunteers to toil in the soil Saturday.

"It will be a lot of work," Humble said. "It'll also be a great opportunity for people to meet each other and talk."

The idea to make the wetlands mitigation into a community project was born when Lisa Tasker, owner of E.M. Ecological (a natural resource consulting business out of Carbondale, Colorado), called the district. "I saw this as an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive," said Tasker, who owns and operates EM Ecological Consulting in Carbondale.

"(Tasker) has made it all happen," Humble said. "She certainly has the background working with revegetation projects."

Tasker said she believes planting 15 different species of native wetlands plants will help kids develop a deeper understanding of and respect for local vegetation.

"I am very interested in seeing kids learn about our local ecosystems right here," Tasker said. "With planting and watching this wetland site right on the school property, in addition to studying wetlands or rain forests thousands of miles away, the kids will have an active, Colorado ecosystem they can study, smell and touch a stones throw from the classroom."

Profile posted on: September 2, 2005