WEST NORRITON>>Black eyed Susan. American holly. Butterfly milkweed.
They’re all native Pennsylvania plants growing wild around here and usually taken for granted by most of us.
But the state’s glorious perennials will now get their due as they take the spotlight at Norristown Area High School’s new greenhouse.
The John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, through its partnership with PECO and ERM (Environmental Resources Management), recently unveiled the Globe (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Greenhouse project at the school, where dozens of Pennsylvania native plants will be nurtured and studied by special-needs students.
The Globe project and the greenhouse give kids the opportunity to explore the local environment and to grow and propagate native plants that will be used to restore the riparian buffers in the Delaware River watershed, providing an outdoor classroom that engages hands-on inquiry, explained Carrie Barron, assistant director of John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove.
“Working with special-needs kids just gave us the population that we were already engaged with. The kids will learn about scientific inquiry, ecosystems, habitats, biodiversity and of course birds,” Barron explained. “There is also a watershed lesson where we test the water from Stony Creek, the Schuylkill River and the Delaware River for nitrates, and to see if where you live along the watershed affects the quality of water.”
The Audubon Center’s relationship with PECO goes back about six years, when the company sponsored a simple outdoor garden bed and education program at Marshall Street Elementary School.
Since then, the program has spread to every elementary school in the area with garden beds and monthly lessons, Barron noted.
“Not only does PECO fund the plant beds, but they pay for our staff to work extensively with the fourth-graders in the district, and they also pay for them to come out to Mill Grove on a field trip in the spring,” she said. “A lot of them have never had the opportunity to be at a big nature center that really feels to them like they’re out in the woods. Now PECO has paid for us to build the greenhouse, have all the supplies and be able to go in with the special needs students for the lessons and we also created a trail from the high school to Stony Creek where students can go and remove the invasive plants and plant the native plants.”
The students will be using the native plants they grow to create gardens at the district schools and in the community, and also along Stony Creek, which is right behind the property, Barron said.
“For us, having these pockets of garden beds throughout the school district and community, that gives birds a stopover habitat, whether they’re migrating or residents, and it’s a place to rest in a concrete driven area. So that really expands our opportunities,” she said.
The greenhouse is wheelchair-accessible for kids with disabilities and is “totally off the grid,” Barron explained.
“Solar panels run the fans to cool it as well as opening windows for ventilation. And we have a rain barrel to collect rain water for the plants so we don’t need any water from the school. It’s a great lesson for kids to see how you can be sustainable,” she added.
The John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove is part of The National Audubon Society, which describes its mission as to “save birds and their habitats throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation.”
The Norristown High special needs students will also be gathering seeds for replanting from the plants that have died, and hope is to ultimately get the entire school involved in the greenhouse, Barron said.
“This will be an ongoing thing throughout the school year. And we’ll be talking with the district about using the greenhouse for other high school classes such as science or biology,” she said. “Our mission is to spread the importance of native plants and how they are really crucial and beneficial to birds. Across the country we’re pushing the ‘plants for birds’ campaign with the idea of 500,000 people planting a million native plants in the next year. The idea of this collective soul doing its part is going to make a huge impact. With all the seeds the special needs kids are planting they’ll be making a huge impact in that. Giving kids the opportunity to connect with nature is the biggest thing that we provide,” Barron added. “In this day and age, with all the electronics that are out there, it’s so important to be able to let kids connect with nature and to understand that they can have a positive impact on the world.”
