Summer 2004

For years, the Land Lab had been working to find a solution to the excess water that is pumped from the roof drains and out to a small area behind the land lab building. With the help of Jon Edgerton of Wright-Pierce engineering and Fred Dibello of Woodlot Alternatives, we created a plan for a wetland that would incorporate a small pond and stream area surrounded by native wetland plants. This area will allow students to observe a wetland throughout the year and understand the importance of wetlands to our natural environment. In the fall of 2003, the land lab wrote and received a watershed grant from the Department of Environmental Protection to help purchase plants and materials to incorporate into the project. We also collaborated with David Allen's environmental studies class at Leavitt High School in Turner to help research which plants would be best for the area and the actual building of the wetland during the summer of 2004. The hole was dug and the liner was laid in June of 2004 and was surrounded by rocks dug from the area. With the research done by the Turner students, we went to Pierson's Nursery in Biddeford for a variety of native plants. They were planted in late September 2004, and students were learning and observing just one week later! Thank you to all of those people who helped make this project a reality. Today, the wetland is a great place to see frogs, many species of birds, and explore the many macroinvertebrates that call the small pond home. Each spring and summer, students explore the wetland with nets and buckets to find what is living beneath the cattails.