January 2024: Restoration Planting with Middle School Students
In the last decade, the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management has recognized the importance of grassland restoration and has been partnering with local middle schools to facilitate student learning and native planting projects.
The Abandoned Mine Land Native Plants Project was established in 2017, and brings together the Wyoming BLM Abandoned Land Mines program, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. The mission of the Native Plants Project is to promote the improvement of wildlife habitat and reestablishment of sagebrush and native plant communities at previously reclaimed mine sites. A mine site is reclaimed when it has been retired from production and undergone a reconstruction where the effects of the mining are minimized and the site is returned to an environmentally safe status.
This year in Lander, WY the BLM has partnered with Lander Middle School, Fort Washakie Middle School, and other volunteers to plant over 1,200 sagebrush seedlings across 2 acres at an abandoned uranium mine.
The students begin early in the school year with a series of in-classroom days where they learn about the importance of habitat restoration and the environmental threats to the sagebrush steppe ecosystem. On planting days, students are paired with environmental professionals which can result in both meaningful connections and provide young community members an opportunity to learn more about environmental professions. The students are given the opportunity to explore and learn about careers in STEM, public lands, and environmental issues.
Programs like the AML Native Plants Project are important not only for the plant restoration they accomplish, but for teaching young people about habitat degradation and the roles they can play in repairing the ecosystem.
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