Iowa Urban Tree Council, Outstanding Volunteer Award
Two teachers Adam Egherman and Heather Anderson from Cowles Montessori School were awarded with the an “Outstanding Volunteer Award” from the Iowa Urban Tree Council. They attended an awards luncheon attended by the Governor, Mayors of several cities, and other representatives from organizations such as the DNR, Alliant Energy, Black Hills Energy, MidAmerican Energy and the Trees Forever organization. Below is a description of the project: Fruit Tree Project
Description: Last spring we celebrated Earth Day at Cowles Montessori School by holding a school-wide Environmental Day. Throughout the day students were presented with a variety of environmental topics. They were able to participate in different activities related to the importance of preserving our natural resources on earth. One activity our students were exposed to was a presentation given by Leslie Berckes who is affiliated with the Tree Forever Organization. As a part of her hands-on presentation each class was able to plant a fruit tree on that day. We planted two apple, two, pear, two plum and two paw-paw trees! Our students were particularly excited about planting the small native paw-paw trees. We recently planted a prairie area and learned about the paw-paw tree at that time.
We had one teacher, Heather Anderson attend a 4 week fruit tree class offered by Trees Forever. She was able to provide students with more detailed information about fruit trees and their care. Another teacher, Adam Egherman offered his students and himself throughout the spring and summer months to care for these fruit trees. We look forward to adding additional trees to create a small school orchard.
A connection students are able to make is the importance of our native pollinators. These trees not only attract honeybees but our declining native pollinators. At Cowles we have several gardens, fruit trees, prairie area, butterfly garden and raised beds. We are trying to establish a natural environment within our urban setting for which our students can learn from.