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A BEE-UTIFUL POLLINATOR PARTNERSHIP IN OHIO
The Ohio Turnpike's first-ever native pollinator gardens feature 17 different
Ohio native plant species. The Ohio Turnpike Commission (OTC) partnered
with Davey Resource Group and Keep Ohio Beautiful to create a native
pollinator garden at the two busiest service plazas on the turnpike:
Middle Ridge and Vermilion Valley. On planting day, the OTC invited
many volunteers, partners and travelers passing through to take part.
COMBINING NATURAL & VIRTUAL WORLDS
Coventry Middle School sixth graders combined the power of modern technology
with old-school grit to create a different kind of Earth Day celebration. Davey's
Ken Christensen, senior biologist for Davey Resource Group, joined eight select
students from the Akron, Ohio, middle school to plant 25 trees during a week-long
stream restoration project that eventually saw several hundred trees planted.
Through non-profit organization Earth Echo's Virtual Tours program, Christensen
and the students shared a tree-planting lesson with hundreds of classrooms
around the world. Earth Echo featured the hangout on its website, aerial shots of
the planting were broadcast live and students around the nation asked questions
throughout the demonstration. Christensen taught students a complete tree
planting lesson, including digging the hole and safe removal from the planting pot.
The sixth grade class works collaboratively with Cuyahoga Valley National Park,
The Ohio State University's Stone Lab Aquatic Research Center and The Wilds
in Cumberland, Ohio, to enhance the water sources around the school, which is
surrounded by glacial kettle lakes.
On Earth Day, Davey brought in 750 live stakes, 360 bare root trees and the 25
container trees to plant around a local stream to restore growth and create new
wildlife habitats.
