This summer, Howard EcoWorks completed a highly anticipated conservation landscape project at Mount Saint Joseph High School in Baltimore, MD. Spanning over 1,750 sq ft, the garden features 500 native perennials and 37 native trees and shrubs. The project was funded by a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Small Watershed Grant.
The project focused on restoring and conserving natural habitats while providing hands-on experience for EcoWorks’ Uplift and READY workforce development programs, as well as volunteers from the high school’s Sustainability Scholars Program.
In April, under the supervision of EcoWorks Field Technician, Nick Lovett, student volunteers planted 14 native trees around the campus as part of their Sustainability Club Workshop. In June, the EcoWorks summer crew returned to remove invasive grass over the garden project area.
Throughout July, EcoWorks crews and student volunteers worked together to till and amend the soil, incorporating 10 cubic yards of compost and biochar mix. Biochar is an organic soil amendment with exceptional abilities to reduce stormwater runoff, filter pollutants, and sequester carbon for long periods of time. The biochar was provided to the project as part of the Center for Watershed Protection’s Scaling Up Biochar Applications Across the Chesapeake Bay project, another NFWF funded project.
To protect the project from erosion and deer, coir matting and silt fence were installed before introducing native plants. Some of the plants featured include native shrubs such as Oakleaf Hydrangea, Compacta Inkberry, and Winter Red Winterberry, along with perennials like Butterfly Weed, Shrubby St. John’s Wort, Blazing Star, and Golden Ragwort.
“Our collaboration with Howard Ecoworks this past summer on the pollinator garden has been a fantastic, experiential learning opportunity for our students, as they were able to be a part of the process from beginning to end,” said Jason Ader, a Science teacher at Mount Saint Joseph High School. “This project has connected classroom concepts, such as why certain native plants were selected, to the outdoor, labor-intensive install. This is a project our students and school can be proud of, and it serves our broader sustainability mission. This garden will certainly be a popular site for our honeybees, and it will brighten our campus from spring through fall!”
Howard EcoWorks’ team members also expressed their enthusiasm for the project. “The time we spent was a great opportunity to work with student volunteers and further MSJs (Mount Saint Joseph’s) commitment to conservation by installing the largest pollinator garden I’ve worked on,” said Alex Andrews, on-site Uplift Crew Leader.
Howard EcoWorks is an environmental nonprofit organization based in Columbia, Maryland, dedicated to engaging and educating the community about environmental sustainability and restoration while creating pathways to green jobs through our workforce development programs. Through education, training, and community empowerment, Howard EcoWorks is transforming landscapes to support biodiversity and a rapidly changing climate.
To learn more about Howard EcoWorks and their ongoing efforts toward sustainability and environmental stewardship, consider visiting their website at https://www.howardecoworks.org.
