<\/p>\n
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF), America\u2019s largest wildlife conservation and education organization, is pleased to recognize that South River High School in Edgewater has successfully created a Certified Schoolyard Habitat\u00ae\u00a0<\/sup>through its Garden for Wildlife program. South River High School has joined with over 5,000 schools nationwide that have transformed their schoolyards into thriving wildlife habitats that provide essential elements needed by all wildlife \u2013 natural food sources, clean water, cover and places to raise young. The habitat also serves as an outdoor education site where students can engage in cross-curricular learning in a hands-on way.<\/p>\n Certification also makes your\u00a0Certified Wildlife Habitat\u00ae\u00a0<\/sup>part of the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, a national effort to restore critical habitat for pollinators.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are excited to have another school join our growing list of more than 5,000 certified Schoolyard Habitats. Kids can now personally experience nature through hands-on learning in an outdoor environment,\u201d said Liz Soper, Director of K-12 Programs for National Wildlife Federation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to demonstrate our school\u2019s commitment to sustainability and environmental protection<\/i>,\u201d said Green Technologies Pathway lead and STEM teacher\u00a0Charlotte Flury.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cThe garden makes me feel more attached to my community. I love seeing a splash of nature next to my school building.\u201d said Macie Culpepper, Green Tech STEM student.<\/i><\/p>\n The South River High School habitat is a pollinator garden filled with plants native to Central Maryland. It features plants such as the Bleeding Heart, Green and Gold, White Wood Aster, Christmas and Wood Fern, and Woodland Phlox. The garden is 100% organic. No pesticides or fertilizers have been used. The students at South River High School in the Green Technologies STEM pathway have started, maintained and improved the garden. They, along with their teacher, selected plants that were best suited to the garden\u2019s shade requirements and soil type. In an effort to provide a habitat for native wildlife, students constructed a birdhouse and a butterfly puddling dish.<\/p>\n NWF\u2019s Garden for Wildlife program encourages responsible gardening that helps pollinators and other wildlife thrive. It encourages planting with native species like milkweed and discouraging chemical pesticide use. With nearly 200,000 locations and growing, NWF\u2019s Certified Wildlife Habitats and Community Wildlife Habitats recognize individuals, schools, groups and whole communities committed to providing habitat for wildlife, including pollinators. Each of the nearly 200,000 certified locations provide food, water, cover and places to raise young. This makes yards, schools, businesses,\u00a0 places of worship, campuses, parks, farms and other community-based landscapes into wildlife sanctuaries.<\/p>\n For more information on gardening for wildlife and details on how an entire community can become certified, visit\u00a0www.nwf.org\/habitat<\/a>\u00a0<\/u>or call 1-800-822-9919. For more National Wildlife Federation news, visit:\u00a0www.nwf.org\/news<\/a><\/u>. (National Wildlife Federation\u00a0<\/i>is America\u2019s largest conservation organization, inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children\u2019s future.)<\/i><\/p>\n Story presented on behalf of the South River HS via National Wildlife Federation press release.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Louis Nesbitt<\/p>\n Office of Business & Community Development<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWe wanted to demonstrate our school\u2019s commitment to sustainability and environmental protection,\u201d said Green Technologies Pathway lead and STEM teacher\u00a0Charlotte Flury.\u00a0
\n\u201cThe garden makes me feel more attached to my community. I love seeing a splash of nature next to my school building.\u201d said Macie Culpepper, Green Tech STEM student.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001013,"featured_media":24497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,315,147,187,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aacps_story","category-southriverhs","category-south_river_stories","category-stem_opportunities","category-new"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24490"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24499,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24490\/revisions\/24499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}