Many people may be unaware of the ecological renovation currently taking place in the back woods of our Westhampton campus. Since February of this year, myself and fellow senior Olivia Percoco have taken it upon ourselves to begin this daunting project and it’s been nothing short of a great learning experience, a friendship builder, and an excuse to spend our afternoons outside. “It was exciting to be part of a project with so much potential to do so much good,” said Olivia, “for both this particular ecosystem and society as a whole.”
In the Elementary School Woods Nature Preserve there is a drainage ditch that collects all the rain water runoff from Mill Road. The Preserve is one of the lowest points of the area, so all of that water ends up in a stagnant pond, filled with pollution, spills, and debris from the road. When there has just been a rainfall, the pond fills up remarkably fast, and a rushing white-water stream is created that extends all the way to the bay, but the water that’s dumped in the bay is very polluted and harmful to the open waters. When Mr. Kommer approached the two of us about taking on the project last semester, we jumped into it. The area needed a lot of work; our goal was to convert the polluted pond into a functioning wetland, able to hold life and establish itself as a true ecosystem, in order to keep the bay at the end of the stream cleaner.
Going into this project Olivia and I had no idea the amount of work we’d be getting ourselves into, but we also were unaware of what we couldn’t do. Immediately road blocks started popping up here and there as we were trying to work. Permits were required to do almost anything: laying down new substrate, using any kind of machinery, or even putting in rocks to impede the water flow. Not only were the permits numerous, but they would have each taken about a year to be accepted by the Town before we could begin working. After learning this, we realized we had to start small, and began doing everything that we were legally allowed to do to create the Wetland.
For a few weeks we’d spend our afternoons digging out the shape of the basin we wanted the pond to take on. The looks we were given as we would walk across Mill Road carrying shovels and gardening rakes on our backs surely gave the trips an added excitement. Once the hole was deep enough we began to clear away all of the garbage, which became the saddest part of the project. One Saturday morning we followed the stream bed a mile down and collected almost five completely-filled garbage bags of litter. It had all been carried from the drainage into the stream, and for years all of this garbage has just been collecting in the bay. Sadly, this will always be a problem, as any litter will eventually get picked up in the drainage pipe, sit in the Wetland, and make its way into the bay. We’ve seen directly where the litter around our school gets taken- think again before you throw something out your car window. If you’d like to help even further (and get Community Service hours completed) take a walk down to the trail and pick up some of the litter in the stream bed so it doesn’t get swept up into the bay. Every little bit helps.
Now, our next step is to make sure the water that comes in from the drainage is thoroughly filtered, to rid it of pollutants and chemicals as much as we can. We are currently awaiting the arrival of special coconut-fiber logs, called Coir Logs. These will both filter the water and impede the fast-paced water flow that runs through the streambed, also helping to control erosion. Once these are fully in place we must secure them in with fencing, which will hopefully block some of the garbage from continuing on down the streambed into the bay. Next year, after the system is hopefully able to flush itself out, we may introduce new native plants to the Wetland, to further its ecological development. We’re not planning on ending this project anytime soon, and will continue to work on it as much as we can when we’re home from college.
Hopefully this has enlightened you on an important project happening right now. We strongly encourage any student interested in furthering this project, for either Community Service hours or a simple desire to help our local environment, to contact us, get some work boots on, and get in! There’s no end to this project, so the more people involved, the more that can be accomplished. Not only is this a great way to help the earth, but it’s also a great means of teaching other students to help the earth. “Creating a wetland behind the Elementary School is basically asking for lessons to be taught out there,” said Olivia. “I think it’s imperative that we teach kids to appreciate and respect the intricacies of nature, as well as to understand the delicate balance of the environment and how easy it is for humans to mess that up.”
This has been nothing short of a wonderful experience for the both of us. We’d both like to thank Mr. Kommer for believing in us during the project, and we also strongly encourage anyone willing to get their hands dirty and do their part to help the environment to step up and do it! You won’t regret the lessons you’ll learn and the great feeling you get when you do a good deed.