Fourth graders begin environmental education

FALLBROOK – During the last week of May, approximately 90 fourth grade students at William H. Frazier Elementary School and 60 students at Fallbrook Street School welcomed Jackie Heyneman and Jean Dooley, or Susan Sullivan, into their classrooms to learn about the Save Our Forest student environmental education program and the work of the Fallbrook Land Conservancy.

After a classroom presentation on how plants provide a healthier and more beautiful environment, the necessity of conserving water, and the importance of community service, (especially in an unincorporated community such as Fallbrook), students began their two-year program of re-vegetating with native plants areas owned or managed by the Fallbrook Land Conservancy.

Additional Save Our Forest volunteers provided a truck loaded with seedlings, soil, and one-gallon pots in the playground area of each school and worked with the students to complete the first step of their two-year program. Four or five students at a time came up to the truck and were instructed by one of the volunteers how to pot tiny native seedlings.

After all students had re-planted the seedlings in gallon containers, their teacher led them back to their classrooms. Students and teachers are looking forward to the second step on their journey as community volunteers when they will put these plants into the ground at one of the Land Conservancy preserves next school year, as fifth graders.

Save Our Forest and the Fallbrook Land Conservancy are pleased to partner with the Fallbrook Union Elementary School System in providing this exciting program for students.