Hopewell Valley Central High Community Conservation

The Hopewell Valley Regional School District detention basin project is a trial run project to hopefully establish a protocol for converting all HVRSD detention basins into native meadows.  The meadow will be a low growth wildflower area that will reduce maintenance, therefore also reducing the costs and environmental impacts of that maintenance. Instead of having to mow a detention basin and keep the grass looking reasonably presentable, the wildflower, native plant meadow will mostly take care of itself once it has matured, and will probably look a lot nice than a blank hole in the ground. This project is highly replicable not only for the school district but also for corporate parks or housing developments, any other space that has detention basins can utilize this technique of meadow conversion. The Watershed Institute provided a grant to FoHVOS to help fund outreach related to CHS basin conversion to meadow.

        Facilities Director, Mr. Tom Quinn, and Superintendent of schools, Dr. Tom Smith, have a bright outlook for the future of environmentalism in the community.  The school district is hoping to set an example for environmentalism in the community and demonstrate the extent of their conscious care for the environment. Their vision of improving sustainability and fostering engagement with the outdoors is reached with every step taken in that direction.  This first meadow conversion will take place at the high school where the Gardening and Environmental clubs can be involved. Additionally, students from the Academic Essentials special education program will be active in the planting and maintenance of the meadow. HVRSD is excited about the opportunities to grow healthy environmental spaces for the benefit of the community.

This is not the first HVRSD and FoHVOS partnered project.  As both are excited about transitioning our community to a fully environmentally aware place, the partnership works great.  The Green Star program recognized HVRSD teachers who were practicing environmental consciousness in the classroom with simple but important practices like recycling or turning off the lights when the classroom is empty.  For the students, there was an EcoWarrior program that recognized one student from each school in the district who demonstrated environmental care and fit the definition of an EcoWarrior. The district is working hard to develop environmental interest in their students and inspire some of them to be the next generation of activists that we so dearly need.