Education officials working to bring ecoscape to LHS campus

By Robert Blankenship The Leeds News

LEEDS — Many people might say that students don’t get to the outdoors enough these days. Well, Leeds education officials, along with other community organizations, are hoping to bring the outdoors to students.

Last week, representatives from a variety of local groups hopped a bus to the Southern Environmental Center on the campus of Birmingham Southern. The group toured an ecoscape created there that serves as a multi-use walking trail for students and visitors. The purpose was to generate discussion and ideas for a similar attraction on the near-treeless property surrounding Leeds High School.

Bryan Swift, a teacher at LHS, is coordinating the effort that he envisions as providing an outdoor classroom for students. He is getting help from the director of the Southern Environmental Center, Roald Hazelhoff.

Hazelhoff served as the tour guide for the Leeds group last week, showing them the many environment features of the ecoscape at the college and how students utilize the ecoscape for classroom purposes. He said LHS could create a similar ecoscape.

“Leeds has all the ingredients to make this a great project,” Hazelhoff said. “This is an opportunity to tout Leeds as a beautiful small town. It will encourage people to visit, park their cars, and walk through Leeds.”

The director added that he would like to partner with the school and community to make the project a reality, but said for it to be successful the community would have to take ownership.

“We would love to be a partner in this project. But, it must be a local project. It has to have local vision,” he said.

That local vision is what Swift was looking for when he collected representatives from garden clubs, government, the arts, the historical society, and many others to take the trip to Birmingham Southern.

“I think everyone was impressed with what they saw and the potential we have at LHS,” Swift said.

Swift envisions a multi-phased plan that would encompass about five acres of land from the parking lot of the high school to Hwy. 78. He would also like to include an inside courtyard at the school into the project.

“I can see a multi-use area that will help us educate our kids on pond ecosystems, wetlands ecosystems, forest ecosystems ... with a focus on Alabama species, especially this part of the state,” he said.

His main purpose for pushing the project is to help teach students.

“This could help teach kids skills in forestry and landscaping; they could partner with local businesses to get kids experience in those areas,” he said.

Among the ideas Swift has for the ecoscape is a possible natural amphitheater and maybe an area for a farmer’s market.

He added that the ecoscape might provide an opportunity to utilize memorials that were taken down at the old high school prior to demolition.

Swift’s efforts to re-invigorate the property around the school have already had some successful results. He earned a $3,000 grant from the Leeds Education Foundation to plant 18 trees and he has planted 200 saplings made possible through donations from Fred Capps, Alagasco, and the Alabama Forestry Commission. Now he is hoping to take a giant leap forward with the ecoscape.

“We wanted to improve the appearance (on the property). We took that idea and improved upon it by considering an outdoor classroom experience,” Swift said.

The goal now is to get feedback and ideas from those within the community. He said to make it a reality, the school would need volunteers to help with some of the work as well as some donations of money and materials.

Swift said those interested in helping with the project may email him at bswift@leedsk12.org.

 

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