Oak Grove School - Once Upon a Wetlands

“Once Upon a Wetland…” is a project of Oak Grove School in partnership with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Meiners Oaks Elementary School, and Nordhoff High School. Our goal is to connect these students with their own backyard, their home, their place-- in other words, their watershed-- by engaging them in the restoration and stewardship of the historic wetland located on the Ojai Meadow Preserve, a 58-acre open space directly adjacent to all three schools.

Students of all grade levels are working to restore native plant communities out on the meadow by propagating and planting native plants, as well as removing invasive weeds. Students are also helping out with authentic scientific monitoring and other stewardship activities including: water quality monitoring, soil sampling and testing, wildlife surveys, plant success rate monitoring, litter removal, etc.

In the process of caring for our wetland, students are also learning about the importance and value of a healthy watershed community, with emphasis on the intrinsic ecological relationships of all things within the watershed and the direct connection of our Ventura River Watershed to the local ocean environment. The culminating experience will be a day trip out to either Santa Cruz or Anacapa Island, where the students can apply their newly found restoration skills to ecological communities out on the islands.

This project is made possible by support from Oak Grove School and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “B-WET” grant program. Thank you!

Early Fall:
       Seed Collection
Late Fall:
       Plant seed flats
Winter:
       Transplant and care for seedlings
Spring
       Plant seedlings on the meadow
Spring Trips:
       TBA

Sara Benjamin
"Once Upon a Wetland…" Project Director
"Once Upon a Watershed" Cofounder
more about Sara

Film: Our Ventura River

"Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there." Gary Snyder