Anne Arundel County Parks and Recreation: Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary
We are an AACPS: Business/Community Partnership | 2020 Business Partner of the Year: Over 50 Employees
Recognized for their support of AACPS by Arlington Echo/Office of Environmental Literacy
Anne Arundel Parks and Recreation has worked with Arlington Echo to develop an award-winning partnership. The Bay Invaders project is an innovative county partnership that supports 9th grade students in learning about and actively removing invasive plant species from county community and regional parks. The Recreation and Parks Department works closely with Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center to leverage resources across the county to support teachers in delivering a new Environmental Science project-based learning curriculum.
The partnership allows students to engage in civic action within their immediate community. In some cases, the parks are adjacent to the schools, so students regularly revisit the area, and can continue to visualize the direct impact they have had on their environment. In this way, students are able to feel like a valuable member of the school system community, reaching another indicator of the plan.
The students engage in multiple field trips, which allow them to interact with their peers in an outdoor setting. Many of the students that are reluctant to take the lead in a classroom become leaders as they develop and execute a plan to remove invasive plants from their local park. Students communicate their plan to remove invasive plants both in writing and in the form of a map, allowing them to apply critical classroom skills to a real-world problem in their local community. Additionally, the project helps support an increase in the percentage of 9th graders matriculating to 10th grade by engaging them to solve a problem in their local community using skills learned in their curriculum across multiple content with local professionals.
With support from the Recreation and Parks Director, Rick Anthony, this project continues to grow. “While our county and regional parks are immensely valuable for their rich natural and cultural resources, they also serve as living classrooms where young people can engage in civic action that enhances both the beauty and ecological sustainability of our parks,” says Mr. Anthony. “This partnership creates an opportunity for future stewards to contribute to increased quality of life and livability in Anne Arundel county.” By the end of April 2019, over 20 teachers and 1500+ students surveyed over 50, 100 square meter plots in six county and regional parks identifying plants and creating management plans for each plot. During several field trips to their plots, students in total removed over 2500 pounds of invasive plants from our parks in 2018 & 2019!
This project continues to garner support across the county. Twenty-five teachers were trained in 2019, marking a near 40% increase year on year. For the 2020 school year, we plan to add one new high school with three additional teachers, and we have also welcomed several new rangers to the program and several new community volunteers, some of which will be invited to serve on the core project committee.
