Dreams Take Root in a Bog

The cattails pictured above may not look like much to you and me, but when Douglas County, Georgia, science teacher Matt Nauman spotted them growing, he knew he'd hit the jackpot.

Matt teaches at Bill Arp Middle School, where he shares his knowledge and passion for the natural world with a bunch of active, curious kids. His students love his classroom, which is filled with every kind of critter from hamsters to snakes to worms. He likes to take them outside to observe the natural world whenever he can, and sometimes they hike downhill to a nearby stream. But look at their surroundings:



Granted, it's February now, and there's not much to see while everything is brown and bare. But when it rains, and the kids go outdoors, their hiking trail is usually underwater. Rain runs down hill from the school, which you can just see at the top of the picture, and floods the low lying area below.

Matt had noticed some interesting native plants and grasses growing here in the past, but there wasn't much to see in the spring and summer of 2007, when Georgia experienced its 4th worst drought in 113 years of weather record-keeping. But one day, as he hiked along the trail, he spotted the cattails and had a great idea.

Cattails thrive in wet, marshy land, so even while most of the local vegetation had shriveled up and died, Matt realized that if the cattails were surviving, the area must have a high water table. He started thinking about how to create a pond that could be filled with other water-loving plants and grasses.

Soon he had a plan, and with the support of area schools, the local water authority, and many others, he's working to build a pond with a surrounding berm to hold in the water and prevent the trails from flooding. The group has already built an information center, so students can read about and identify the plants that will grow here, and this spring and summer, they'll add a boardwalk for crossing the marshy area, a covered pavilion, and picnic tables. All this would give the kids access through this trail to a nearby creek.

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There's a lot of work ahead. To save money, Matt and his group will do most of the physical labor themselves, and that means digging out the pond, heaping the dirt to make a berm, graveling the trails, planting, and so on. But what an inspiration--using what nature has given us, and teaching kids to find the beauty in our wetlands. I'll post more pictures as the work gets underway. This is a great project, and the hope is that local developers will adapt it and turn retention ponds in subdivisions and shopping centers into beautiful, wildlife-friendly wetlands, too. You go, Matt!