Environmental Club had a busy year
The Hudson Valley has 13 new trees thanks to the Highland Falls Intermediate School’s Environmental Club!
On May 5, eight HFIS eighth graders — Allison Aguilar, Adalys Arias, Will Cotter, Sophia Lindberg, Vincent Magallanes, Yasmin Marocho, Eric Michala and Bella Montellese — took a bus to Granite Mountain Preserve in Putnam Valley. There, they met with a representative of Hudson Highlands Land Trust to learn about that preserved area, enjoy a picnic lunch, and plant 13 White Spruce saplings (they’re native to this part of the country) under the leadership of HHLT.
It was, the students agreed during a quick lunchtime interview last week, a fun field trip.
The students were accompanied by HFIS science teachers Andrew Krakowka and Lucas Patch. The two are the advisors for the school’s Environmental Club, to which all of the students who went are members of. “We hope to be able to continue this partnership with HHLT,” Patsch said, maybe in doing some trail maintenance in the preserve.
While they were there, Montellese and Marocho said, they also spent some time pulling garlic mustard, an invasive species in the Hudson Valley, from the area where their new trees were planted.
The students said they enjoyed digging the deep holes for the tree saplings, and several said they plan to take their families back to visit ‘their’ trees.
Krakowka said an added bonus to the May visit to Granite Mountain is that they were able to get a permit to release 31 fingerling trout that the students had raised from eggs in an aquarium in Krakowka’s classroom.
The group first took over the care of the eggs and then fish back in October.
The students are about to ‘move up’ from the HFIS to O’Neill High School, where most say they plan to join the Environmental Club. That’ll leave plenty of room for other upcoming seventh and eighth graders to repopulate the HFIS club.
FYI: For those who remember a story on the Environmental Club earlier this year, here’s an update on how their clothing collection bins outside the HFIS are doing. So far this year, from those bins, 3162 pounds of clothing have been picked up, which means that eight trees have been planted in the school’s name. Other stats from the company show that the donations to the bin have had the potential to clothe 63 people; some 47,430 pounds of C02 have been prevented, and some 7.9 million gallons of water saved. “Thanks to all who donate unwanted clothing in the bins,” the students say.
