ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATOR
OF THE YEAR AWARDS

Lynette has been working with the city of Boise's naturalist Kristin Gnojeski to develop a pollinator Garden in Mariposa Park.  Her students chose to help pollinators as their service  project, because they are aware of the plight of bees and other pollinators. The students decided they wanted to use drought resistant Idaho native plants. This began a slew of activity.  We first met virtually with a city naturalist. The students had many questions about what irrigation, signage, types of plants that are in the other sections of the garden, ground preparation, tool availability, plants available from the mother garden, and other pollinator gardens they could reference.  They started research on types of Idaho native plants. There were over 75 plants that we were considering to put in the garden. They wrote letters to parents explaining the project. The students wrote scripts so they could make cold calls to local nurseries, and be able to explain what they were doing and ask for plant donations. They have taken photos to be used on our class Instagram to tag nurseries that have donated. They contacted a local printer to have t-shirts printed with their slogan " Saving pollinators one plant at a time" They care about each other and the planet :) Students have written thank you letters to nurseries that have donated. They have planted seeds that were donated from Snake River Seed Cooperative, so that the seedlings may be added to the garden either on the planting day or after.  We have two 49ft square spaces in  Mariposa Park, with the possibility to extend more next year!  Because this is a fifth and sixth grade project, fifth graders may work on it again next year! 

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