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News :: Miscellaneous |
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High School Environmental Group Changes Campus |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sarah Kanouse, Phillip Short
(No verified email address) |
22 Feb 2001
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Tucked on the edge of Illinois in the metro-east St. Louis area, the Belleville High School Ecology Club is a dynamo environmental group making real change on their campus and training and inspiring a new generation of environmental activists. Most recently, the club and its charismatic sponsor, Phillip Short, obtained a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to mitigate damage caused to an campus arboretum and natural area by construction. |
Tucked on the edge of Illinois in the metro-east St. Louis area, the Belleville High School Ecology Club is a dynamo environmental group making real change on their campus and training and inspiring a new generation of environmental activists. Most recently, the club and its charismatic sponsor, Phillip Short, obtained a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to mitigate damage caused to an campus arboretum and natural area by construction. Hundreds of students are joining up to plant native trees this year, build nest boxes, control erosion, and engage in the environmental awareness events the Ecology Club has been offering for three decades.
Background
Belleville East High School, with an enrollment of about 2700 students, is not a typical suburban high school. The campus boasts an arboretum and nature study area containing numerous native tree species. A small stream and its surrounding buffer run across campus, providing on-campus opportunities for numerous outdoor lessons and restoration activities. From the early days of the school, the biology department offered a variety of courses including an elective in wildlife ecology. Urban Baum, long-time department chair, had a passion for helping young people understand and appreciate the living world. Outdoor studies have always been integral to the biology department\'s program, and the ecology club, which consistently boasts memberships of 150 - 300 students, has been enriching that program for three decades.
The Belleville East Ecology Club offers students an acquaintance with the natural world and finds ways to get them involved in making positive changes. Through frequent hiking and camping trips lead by teachers in botany, zoology, and ecology open up honest discussions about ourselves, our world, and our directions. Bringing those experiences back to the classroom bring relevance to lessons in the biomonitoring of streams and quantitative forest analyses. But the Ecology Club’s mission goes beyond education into action. Current sponsor Phil Short, who became involved in the club in 1989, sums up Provide as many wilderness opportunities as possible for young people, contrast those experiences with the world we create for ourselves, and try to do something about the mess we\'re in.\"
Students report that Phil Short introduces them to current local environmental issues, provides a context for understanding the issues, and offers possible avenues for intervening. \"He’s also very open to ideas you want to do,\" reports Ecology club member Jessica Walsh. Short sends out daily action alerts on such local and statewide issues as horseback riding tours eroding paths in the Shawnee National Forest and Illinois Power’s proposed vegetation management plan, which could result in thousands of trees cut down across the state. In addition, the club sponsors Earth Week events at the high school and an elementary school hold regular meetings and letter writing campaigns on current environmental issues. The students were most galvanized into action by the destruction caused by recent construction on campus.
The Mitigation Project
Belleville East High School was set to build a new softball field. Phillip Short had obtained a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to mitigate damage from the construction on the stream and arboretum on campus, where some trees would be cut. Due to a miscommunication, a bulldozer cleared a portion of the Natural Study Area all the way to the edge of the creek bank. Students across campus stood gaping as they saw the native trees in the arboretum snapped and pushed over within minutes.
The loss of the trees \"was a wake-up call. A tremendous renewal of interest in issues began which I haven\'t seen since the early \'90s,\" reports Short. \"We got involved when we saw the bulldozers out there knocking trees over,\" recalls new Ecology Club member Crystal Haas. A large, diverse group of students and parents, headed up by the Ecology Club, pushed the administration to replant, which they permitted but did not fund. The Ecology Club spent over $500 to plant hundreds of trees, and scores of students turned out to help. \"I was impressed with our school because everyone came together around the issue,\" says Walsh.
Students are excited about the campus improvements and report that the mitigation project has evolved, in their eyes, into a restoration project. They hope to plant more trees and extend the natural area to its size and condition of decades ago.
The Ecology Club impacts more than the campus. It provides formative experiences in the education of young people, who want to continue being involved with the environmental movement even if they do not consider themselves activists. \"I’m involved in something. You get this feeling when you know you’ve saved some trees. It’s more than material—it’s spiritual,\" says Elizabeth Maty, a junior. Many Belleville East alumni continue to be involved with the club after graduation, and for students who do not know if their college will have an environmental group, a continuing connection to Belleville East provides support for founding a new group. The Ecology Club empowers students to make decisions about directions and desires for their lives at an early age, and offers them ways to put these into practice today.
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Excellent Account! |
by Duane Short
woodmist (nospam) shawneelink.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
24 Feb 2001
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Thank you for highlighting the Belleville East High School Ecology Club. As my last name would suggest, I am Phil Short's brother. Sappy as it may be, I want your readers to know Phil excels in character and integrity as much as he does as an educator and mentor.
I have had the privilege to accompany Phil on several of his outings with students. I have always been amazed at the sincere mutual respect I've witnessed between teacher and student.
Because I own a small piece of property near three Shawnee National Forest wilderness areas Phil's former students sometime's come by before they set out on a day hike or backpacking trip. Their lasting respect for Phil is evident. Their understanding and appreciation for the natural world is evident as well.
Likewise Phil's respect for his student is evidenced every time we spend time together. I cannot recall ever having a lengthy conversation with Phil, when he didn't bring me up to date on the lives of his present and former students.
Phil is the first to point out how fortunate he is to be surrounded by great colleagues and associates. I know Urban Baum is to Phil what Phil is to his students.
In the grand scheme of things, I know the environmental health of Illinois and our planet is better for the lives of all those associated (past and present) with the Belleville East High School Ecology Club.
Sappy as it may be, my chest swelled with pride and my eyes literally moistened as you brought to light the life's work of many good folks and the positive impact they continue to make upon young minds not just in terms of environmental issues, but also issues of the heart, mind, and soul.
In a society still predispositioned to view environmentalists as "kooks" and '"radicals" your article is most refreshing.
A sincere thanks,
Duane Short
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See also:
http://www.shawnee.fws1.com/
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