Our Featured School

Ten years after taking root in a desolate schoolyard in Waterloo, Ontario, the Mary Johnston Carolinian Forest Habitat Restoration Project is an ecological show-piece.

"It began as a three-hectare rectangle of compacted sub-soil, without a blade of grass in sight," says parent volunteer Carol Moogk-Soulis, who has enlisted the help of thousands of students from Mary Johnston Public School. "We've since planted more than 1,500 trees and shrubs and a multitude of wildflowers along a community trail on the schoolyard."

Thanks to the reintroduction of horse chestnut, ironwood, butternut, red oak, and many other native species, says Moogk-Soulis, "We're beginning to see a Carolinian forest emerging. We're also beginning to have a positive impact on the Grand River watershed. Our project site drains into a creek, and we can see evidence of slower run-off and less erosion because of the forest."

Among the many wildlife benefits are two travel corridors that now link adjacent woodlots and wetlands. Students, teachers, and parents are discovering the habitat needs of wildlife and other ecological issues.

Each spring, the school holds an annual "hole-down," and hundreds of community volunteers turn out to dig and spread mulch throughout the planting zone. A summer maintenance group meets weekly to weed, water, trim, and monitor the habitat while school is out.

Plans to transform a paved section of the schoolyard to native habitat, to protect and enhance an adopted pond, and to extend the two travel corridors are among the efforts that will drive this Habitat 2000 (WILD School) project for at least five more years, says Moogk-Soulis.

Mary Johnston Public School is the winner of the top 2001 National Wildlife Week Award.