Sometimes we have to give back

Scenes from outside the Wildlife Habitat

Scenes inside Wildlife Habitat

On Saturday a group of Coastal Georgia Audubon folks were at Golden Isles Elementary working on the Wildlife Habitat. This was a project started by our Audubon group back in the early 1990’s. At that time the new elementary school had a problem; they were right in the middle of a low land area. The land had been cleared of every tree. Right next to the school was a huge muddy area. A few of our far sighted Audubon leaders offered to help. Chris Daughtry was the project leader along with Mike Chapman who knew about native plants. Today, what once was a mess is now wonderful wetlands area. Chris went on to design and install several other outdoor classrooms around the area. He has won a couple of national award for these classrooms.

Saturday we were thinning the trees in the little area so the children can walk around on the paths. We used a chipper to

create mulch from the trees we cut down. The mulch was put on the trails. It smelled so good in there with all the pine, cedar trees and wax myrtle chopped up. Do not worry there were plenty of trees around.

Auduboner gathered around the chipper ready to work
There was a Little Blue Heron in the bog when we arrived. As we drug wood over to the rented chipper, Red-winged Blackbirds chipped around us. There was a Green Heron that want us to leave and Pine Warbler sang their lazy summer song.

It is wonderful to watch birds but it is just as important to give back. These wildlife habitats gives habitat back to the birds. The added benefit is that teacher to teach children about birds and nature right in their own school yard.

Another view inside the Wildlife Habitat job well done