Teacher speaks to garden club

RICES LANDING – Helen Barbor, scholarship chairman of the Town and Garden Club of Rices Landing, welcomed Kevin Willis, the club’s first scholarship recipient in 1991, to a club meeting.
He has been a teacher at Carmichaels Area High School for 18 years and sponsors the school’s “Envirothon” nature trail and greenhouse.
Willis presented the many aspects of The Greenhouse Project at Carmichaels Area High School, which recently completed construction of a 24-by-48-foot greenhouse as part of a Nature Plant Restoration Project. The greenhouse has automatic watering, evaporative cooling and heating systems, soil sterilizer, fertilizer injection, a seedling propagation table with heating pads, a four-valve connector manifold and several tables, bins, hanging plant rails and a sink.
The primary goal for this project is to propagate native plant species in the greenhouse to demonstrate the restoration of a local ecosystem with native vegetation. With this goal comes educating both the school and community about the importance of planting natives.
The Greenhouse Project will involve students in some phase of the following steps: researching the invasive species threat, designing an ecosystem restoration plan based on available research, propagate the native species in the greenhouse, implementation of the plan to revegetate the area with the propagated natives and publishing the project to educate the public about the value, diversity, and environmental importance of these native plants used.
Willis stated that other teachers are beginning to use the greenhouse facility to raise plants for the Carmichaels Community Garden. Fred Morecraft and Zoie Chambers are enthusiastic about the involvement of their sixth-grade and Life Skills students, respectively.
The students are currently monitoring more than 700 oak seedlings, 100 pure American chestnut seedlings and 250 perennials, along with a variety of other plants.
Willis presented the club with an oak seedling for future planting.