Ecoreachers taught visitors all about the unique life history of caddisflies, including the cases they build as larvae! Using cutouts and cardboard, we worked with young visitors to craft their own caddisfly cases to take home.

Ecoreach always has a blast at Insect-ival and our Ecoreachers are already excited about implementing new activities next year.

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This spring 2019, EcoReach was contacted by Malcom Bridge Elementary School in Oconee County to organize a weekly series on pollinators (animals that move pollen from one flower to another). This was apart of the school’s work to become STEM certified. EcoReachers Angela Burrow, Heather Levy, Kristen Lear and Kyle Stewart lead the lecture series on pollinators for the 2nd graders at this school. These lectures emphasized the importance of different types of pollinators, as well as providing basic information on each of them (birds, bees, butterflies, and bats).

These EcoReach members also made plans to design and plant a pollinator garden at the school so that the kids could observe, ask questions, make predictions, and take data on what they see. In April, Heather Levy and Kyle Stewart successfully obtained a grant from the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society to support the planting of this garden. Native plants, bird feeders, and other supplies for the school were purchased with these funds. Carol Seaddle of the Angel Creek Nursery also donated several herbs . This garden was planted by Kyle Stewart, Angela Burrow, Emma Dickinson, Ashley LaVere, and Ania Majewska on May 15th. 40+ native plants were planted in two locations at the school; the reading garden and vegetable garden. Two humming bird feeders and a 4-arm bird feeder system were also set up and seeds for the feeders and sugar for nectar solution were given to the teachers.

Next year, the MBES teachers and Kyle plan to do a monthly lecture series over the course of the entire 2019-20 academic year for the next group of 2nd graders. Kyle will also visit the old group, now 3rd graders, to see how their observations are going, and to help them develop questions to ask about the pollinators they see. If you would like EcoReach to visit your classroom, or your child’s class, please contact us!

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The rain garden will have two purposes. First, the rain garden will decrease the amount of stormwater runoff to Trail Creek during rain events by promoting infiltration of the runoff into the ground. Second, by promoting infiltration, the contaminants in the stormwater runoff can be filtered out naturally.

Last Thursday, EcoReach volunteers were able to assist the students and staff of Stroud in building a rain garden near the entrance of the school. It was a beautiful day to get outside and do some gardening! EcoReachers had a blast teaching the students gardening skills. We are so proud of the students at Stroud for taking direct action and helping to improve the water quality of Athens streams! We are excited to work more with Stroud students in the future.

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