First Schoolyard Habitats Come To Stratford And Danbury

Who and What: This June, Franklin Elementary in Stratford and Westside Middle School Academy in Danbury will host their habitat unveiling ceremonies for their new schoolyard habitats and outdoor classrooms they designed and installed after months of research and planning. These school teams have brought to life their habitat designs with the intention to enrich their campuses with habitats for wildlife and more powerful learning environments for students. Audubon Connecticut and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked in partnership with the habitat teams at Franklin Elementary and Westside Middle schools as they created ambitious Schoolyard Habitat master plans for their individual campuses. At their individual unveiling ceremonies, all four schools will be the first U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service certified Schoolyard Habitats in their respective cities!

This past spring, students, staff, and community volunteers all helped to put Franklin Elementary and Westside Middle schools’ plans into action. They planted native plants for birds and pollinators, created outdoor classrooms, and installed bird feeders and bird houses that will target specific bird species they want to attract to their habitats. The schools’ habitat work was fueled by a mini-grant provided by Audubon Connecticut made possible through support from the Dalio Foundation.

These new schoolyard habitats are two of eight new habitats being installed this year across Fairfield and New Haven Counties. These eight are joining an even larger network of 17 already established schoolyard habitats across the state, including eight in New Haven, one in Norwalk, five in Stamford, and three in Greenwich. The Schoolyard Habitat program is part of Audubon Connecticut’s Urban Oases Program- an initiative that is creating a network of habitats across Connecticut’s parks, neighborhoods, and schoolyards into quality stopover habitat for millions of migrating songbirds. To date the Urban Oases Program has created 15 public urban oases sites statewide. Schoolyard and public urban oases habitats are providing critical habitat for birds, improving human and watershed health, revitalizing neighborhoods, increasing knowledge about Long Island Sound, and engaging communities in conservation action. Birds migrating this spring will find additional refuge at Franklin Elementary and Westside Middle schools’ habitats where they can rest and refuel along their migratory paths!

Where and When:

• Franklin Elementary School, 1895 Barnum Avenue, Stratford, CT 06614. Wednesday, June 14th, 10am (rain date: Tuesday, June 20th, 10:30am)
• Westside Middle School Academy, 1 School Ridge Road, Danbury, CT 06811. Thursday, June 15th at 12pm (rain date: Friday, June 16th at 12pm)

Photo via Pixabay