Posted by Casey Williams on May 10th, 2009

Last week, the 5th grade class from Red Hill Elementary came out to Bundoran Farm for a geology field trip. The class stopped by to look for local evidence of the rock cycle, earth history and fossils, weathering and erosion, and human impact upon the environment.

The field trip marked a new collaboration gets with Red Hill Elementary School, which lies just around the corner from Bundoran Farm. This spring, Bundoran Farm and Red Hill are kicking off a new partnership to expand the elementary school lessons into the fields, forests and wetlands at Bundoran Farm.

The Bundoran Farm team designed a special program for the Red Hill students around a large wetland restoration project at Bundoran Farm called the Carpenter Springs Wetland, located in the middle of the pasture just off Plank Road. The wetland is a conglomeration of springs which feed and support the largest natural wetland complex on Bundoran Farm. The wetland has been subject to cattle grazing for several decades. In September 2007, we fenced the cattle out of the wetland as the first step in restoring the water quality and health of the ecosystem. Last fall we planted a variety of native trees and shrubs to accelerate the reversion of the ecosystem to a forested wetland.

The site serves as a great outdoor classroom; a place to learn about and observe water emerging from ground, wetland soils and the plants and the wildlife habitats they support. It’s a good place to discuss the water cycle, how rocks are made, how soil is derived from the underlying rock, and how vegetation and therefore wildlife are influenced by local geology. We hope this will be a valuable experience for the students.

We are also working on plans to host 23 kindergartners for a field trip before the end the school year. If you have any interest in assisting with these programs at Bundoran Farm, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Filed under: Baldwin Center for Preservation, Education and Inspiration, General, Nature/Environment