Younger Kids Can Help Too!

The 3-6 Program

The younger kids will be working with Miss Denice. Denice is an early childhood educator with expertise in outdoor education. She will be supported by several of the Green Crew youth members. They will be making pollinator planting balls out of the mud. Yes, getting in the literal mud, and making balls of mud with native pollinator seeds. We will have a hose to wash them off. A change of clothing would be advisable. Denice assures us this type of tactical interaction with nature will be just perfect and we can’t imagine anything we’d rather do. Assuming the rest of the project is going well, we’re sure we’ll be over there making some mud balls too.

The 7-12 Program

The middle-school-age kids will be planting Oak Saplings. This will not be as challenging as the Elm Tree planting, but it is equally important. We have 50 Oak Saplings. Locations have been identified throughout the property. Using a GPS program the youth will identify a location, dig a small hole, and plant a 1-foot bare-root sapling. This will be followed up by watering and recording the data. Ingrid, the Secretary of the Green Crew and a senior at Edina High School, joined by Tom Crawford, the director of our Summer Program and the Coordinator of the River Watch program at Friends of the Minnesota River, will be leading this project. Both are trained, certified, and very experienced in working with youth.