RIDGEFIELD — Thanks to a state grant, a Ridgefield wetland will be preserved and restored by students over the next school year, becoming an integrated outdoor learning space for the View Ridge and Sunset Ridge campuses. A similar space at South Ridge Elementary will become a schoolyard/backyard habitat.
View Ridge Middle School science teacher Katie James headed up the grant project. The goal was to create a multi-school effort in which students could take part in habitat restoration and ecosystem monitoring, opening opportunities for outdoor learning. The project at View Ridge and Sunset Ridge extends restoration efforts started by a school partnership with the Ridgefield Lions Club and the Watershed Alliance.
Next year, the space will become a vast outdoor classroom as students plan the habitat spaces, create interpretive displays, plant native plants, and monitor wildlife and water quality. Next fall, STEM students will build and place nesting boxes for eight native bird species, houses for mason bees and butterflies, and bat boxes. They will also build benches for the trail to create a shared space that can be utilized by teachers of all subjects.
At South Ridge Elementary School, teachers Jackie Bergeron and Amy Hunt are leading efforts to create a certified backyard habitat, with a nature trail and outdoor classroom space. Students will design the project around the area’s microhabitats (wetlands and oak savanna), with the goal of creating future demonstration sites like rain and pollinator gardens. They are already getting started, organizing volunteers for trail construction that starts at the end of the month.
