“Hey, I made that trail!” South Whidbey High School Ecology Club at the Whidbey Institute

In this month's issue of Forest Medicine, WI Forest Steward Larry Rohan talks to students from the South Whidbey High School.

Central to the mission of the Whidbey Institute is preserving and nurturing the healthy and sustaining nature of our grounds. As such, we take high value in serving as a resource toward educating our community, including and especially local youth, to become lifelong stewards of the land. One much respected partner in that pursuit is the Ecology Club of the South Whidbey High School (SWHS). 

The Ecology Club is open to all SWHS students and meets every Wednesday at lunch. The club has been active since 2017 with Seth Raabe, Sustainable Agriculture teacher and garden manager, as club advisor. Besides work on the school grounds, the Ecology Club has participated in volunteer activities at the Whidbey Institute over the last few years, including a wetland restoration project, tree and understory planting, and trail building. 

Other past projects in the community by club members and alumni include restoration work at the Whidbey Camano Land Trust and Gary Oak Tree plantings in the Maxwellton Valley. These projects help give students a hands-on way to see the impact they can make on the environment.  “When I visit places like the Whidbey Institute, I know that - Hey, I made that trail! I contributed to this tangible thing,” said club member Augustus Schmidt.

“It's the same with the plantings here (at the school),” Augustus added. “I can look at them when I look out the window and know that others will get to see that in the future, too.”

I recently met with the Ecology Club at South Whidbey High School for one of their regular weekly meetings. I spoke with Seth and students Augustus, Olin Nelson, Kasen Parcell, Ianna King, Jack Shamansky, and Kylan Ziegler. Other current members include Atlas Ringsrud, Lisette Bentabou, Nathan Pearson, Abram Durham, Lucille Helms and others who were not able to join us for this interview.
 

What are the goals and objectives of the club?
 

Augustus: We hope to improve our local environment, our community and parks. We have done multiple plantings around the high school and some are edible plants. We’ve done invasive species removal at various properties on South Whidbey and have built compost and waste sorting-stations here at the high school.

Kasen: Our goal is to jump on any opportunity we can to make ourselves known throughout the school. We've created a couple plantings by the ceramics kilns. We want to inspire others to join our club and we want our membership to grow. 

Olin: There is a new project at the high school restoring the Freshman Pond. We will be renovating the pond perimeter, removing blackberries, and making it look nice and planting natives and edible species. Hopefully the pond project will help with recruiting new club members.

Augustus: Mr. Raabe brought a large group of club members on a mushroom foraging field trip and we were inspired to learn about what they look like and where they grow, so we'd like to educate our club members about our local environment and the forest community.

What are your plans for projects this year?

Seth: We are working on maintaining plantings at the high school. When the construction project is done here, we will be reestablishing those planting beds and working on edible landscaping. The planting in the courtyard was planted by the club six years ago and is a culinary herb garden. 

Augustus: We would like to come back to the institute. We loved the recent trail building. It was really fun and that exemplifies what we like to do.

Seth: The club did a Gary oak planting on one of the properties in the Maxwelton Valley several years ago. Both Larry and the Oak Harbor Garry Oak Society were involved with that planting and they provided the seedlings.

How is the work that you are doing protecting or repairing
the environment?

Augustus: We have removed invasive species like holly, Himalayan blackberry and English ivy.  When we work in parks, we try to make them more lively. When we clean up parks and make them look more well kept,  it makes people respect them and they are less likely to litter.  

Seth: This group here, these young people care about leaving things in a better state, and this is one of the most important things that humans can do. Leave things better than we found them. I see that spirit in all these young people. 

Olin: A lot of what we are doing at the school with plantings has the purpose of teaching others about the ecology club and we are using our voice to tell others to join the ecology club. Do what you can to make a difference. 

Augustus:  What sets us apart here with this club is that we really try to do things, not just simply talk.

What aspects of the work that you do is the most
inspiring and rewarding? 

Olin: I enjoy seeing what we have accomplished as a group and how we can work together for a specific goal and have the same focus to contribute to our community.

Ianna: There's a sense of pride and accomplishment in what we do. 

Jack: I think it's fun going out on the trails and working on them. 

Kylan: I find it rewarding to go out in the woods and it never really feels like work, it's a lot of fun. It's noble what we're doing, and being out there allows me to appreciate how beautiful Whidbey Island is. We are fortunate to live here, and being able to work on it and make it better for generations to come, and that's noble to me. 

Thanks to the students in the ecology club and Mr. Raabe for your care, inspiration and action in doing good and lasting work in our community!