Teacher Pete Rankin gathers the crew (Photo by Avery Jepson-Browne)The Aldo Leopold Charter School (ALCS) students completed the first semester of their multi-year community restoration projects. These monthly experiential education activities incorporate ecological restoration, youth leadership, and ecologist Aldo Leopold’s land ethic. These projects provide a place-based, shared experience for contextualizing core class content and enhance the development of skills such as problem-solving, self-discipline, ecological awareness & leadership in a fun way. Students choose from projects located at the historic Waterworks building, San Vicente Farms, or Signal Peak Meadows. The goal of this initiative is to manifest Aldo Leopold's mid-20th century land ethic in today's world. At all three locations students: plant & cultivate school culture within hands-on, data-driven, place-based ecological restoration, gather as a school community outdoors, and promote youth empowerment in a mission-driven & collaborative way that addresses the climate crisis.
Description of Sites and Activities:
The Waterworks Building (1887): In partnership with the Town of Silver City, Youth Conservation Corps, and Freeport-McMoran, students are working on the restoration of this historic site to be used as a visitors center for hikers on the Continental Divide Trail and an education center in sustainability for our community. Their activities include the following: planting native trees, establishing biochar basins and waffle gardens, harvesting rainwater from the buildings and across the land, creating educational signs to identify plants and contextualize art installations, biochar production for carbon drawdown and sequestration, using earthen plaster with the expertise of local artisans and locally sourced clays, creating a carbon currency for incentivizing restoration behaviors. Students are further restoring previously used picnic tables and benches as a woodworking component. Bridgette Johns and the Southwest New Mexico Arts, Culture, and Tourism Association were recently awarded a Trails + Grant from the New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division to fund their efforts on this site.
San Vicente Farms: Student activities include developing infrastructure such as a kitchen ramada, solar panels, water catchment system; expanding the current composting system for composting food scraps from the school lunch program; creating a carbon currency for incentivizing restoration behaviors; biochar production for carbon drawdown and sequestration; designing and building an amphitheater and performing arts space. Students benefitted from a recent visit with USDA scientists and gained a deeper understanding of how healthy soil is made.
Signal Peak Meadows: In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, students learn the principles of restoration ecology and water harvesting, build erosion control and water harvesting structures, establish monitoring well sites, harvest seeds and transplants from reference meadows, restore species diversity through seeding and planting at the meadow site, establish and monitor sites to assess the success of restoration, assess the potential of meadow restoration for carbon sequestration, and assess the potential for incorporating biochar soil amendments.
Tenth grader Sonata Baca participates in the Waterworks crew. She says, “We had so much fun working to rebuild picnic tables. We applied math skills, learned safety skills, and worked together as a team to improve our community.”
Aldo Leopold Charter School is tuition-free public school serving grades 6-12 with a focus on stewardship of the community and the natural environment. The school offers small class sizes, after-school academic support, opportunity for paid internship with Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), dual-credit coursework with Western New Mexico University, and the opportunity to play team sports with either Silver High School or Cobre High School. Applications for the next enrollment lottery are available in January at the school located at 410 W. 10th Street or online at www.aldocs.org. You may also call the school at (575) 538-2547 for further information.