A school's hands-on lesson in stream restoration

That's what students at Park School of Baltimore may find out in coming years. Right now, they're getting a hands-on lesson in what long and laborious work it is - not to mention costly - to remedy the harm done to their neighborhood stream by development along its banks, including the school's own impervious footprint.

The stream in question is Moore's Branch, which flows along the back of the Brooklandville private school's campus on its way to Lake Roland.  The lake drains into the Jones Falls, which ultimately finds its way to Baltimore Harbor, the Patapsco River and the Chesapeake Bay.

The banks of Moore's Branch are badly eroded, explains Daniel Jacoby, who teaches environmental science and advises the Climate Change Committee at Park (known archly by its initials, CCCP, with lots of Soviet Union jokes).  Students who visit the stream repeatedly over the years say they've seen signs it's not in very good shape, with few of the aquatic bugs on which trout and other fish like to feed.

"The kids used to remember seeing substantial fish, crayfish and a lot more life that's not there now," Jacoby says.

The decline of Moore's Branch no doubt started well upstream of Park School, but Jacoby says the campus bears some responsibility, too.   Years ago, to provide parking for faculty and staff, a lot was paved within 20 feet or so of the stream bank.  When it rains, the water runs off the lot into the stream, adding to storm-fed surges that eat away at the creek banks.  Pavement that close to water wouldn't - or certainly shouldn't - be allowed today, at least not without some runoff protections built in.

That's what Park School and its students are providing now, after the fact.  Inspired to act by a staffer with the Center for Watershed Protection in Ellicott City, the students and Jacoby applied for and got a $20,000 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to landscape the thin strip of ground between the parking lot and the stream.  The school has chipped in even more funds of its own to cover the restoration project, and handled the logistics of hiring contractors to do the heavy earth-moving work involved.

It took practically two years to get all the permits and approvals needed to go forward, Jacoby says, but the restoration effort is finally happening. A swale or trench-like depression has been carved in the ground to capture the first flush of rain running off the parking lot, and students this week have been planting shrubs, and various perennials and grasses along the swale to help soak up the runoff.

On Saturday, the project will wrap up with a final planting involving students, their parents and volunteers with the Baltimore Water Alliance, the recently formed coalition of watershed groups that watches over the Jones Falls and other waterways feeding into the harbor.  David Flores, a restoration coordinator for the alliance and a Park alumnus, has been advising them.

Jacoby said the three-year saga has been an education for him and the students, and promises to be a continuing lesson for classes to come.

"It's kind of a great teaching tool, both for the environmental science and other classes," he said.  Also for lower school classes.  All walk in the stream, he said, adding that "the kids really care about it."

Here's hoping that caring is contagious, and the example the school sets can spread throughout the Jones Falls and the rest of the Baltimore Harbor watershed.

(Student members of Park's climate change committee and its faculty advisor plant native perennials along swale. From left, Jackson Hance, Daniel Jacoby, Emily King and Eric Bass.  Photo by Hillary Jacobs, Park School)