Alabama Students Learn Environmental Lessons on National Public Lands Day

The Black Belt Environmental Science and Arts Program (BBESAP) at Auburn University's Environmental Institute has offered outdoor learning experiences for students in grades 5-8 for the past nine years. BBESAP works with students from under-served rural schools in Alabama's Black Belt region, a crescent-shaped prairie named for its unusual black soil, extending along the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers.

On National Public Lands Day 2010, the BEESAP engaged seventh grade students in a stream cleanup at Bridgeport Park in Wilcox County, Ala. The students also participated in an ecosystem study and learned how to identify animals in an area by looking for clues such as scat, tracks, feathers and shells. The students removed over 500 pounds of trash from the area that day.

Kay Stone, outreach program administrator for the BBESAP program, said that key partnerships with the Sierra Club Water Sentinels and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were vital to the success of the activities. The Water Sentinels provided T-shirts and backpacks for the students and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided trash bags, pickers and arranged for removal of collected litter.

"Cleanups are great community service projects and working with a school gives you the opportunity to educate while removing unsightly and polluting materials from areas the students visit when not in school," Stone said.

Submitted by Kay Stone, Auburn University Environmental Institute

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