Walama Restoration Project

From Seed to Habitat Education Program (FSH)

The From Seed to Habitat (FSTH) Education Program provides hands-on ecological education to grades 4-12 at schools in Lane County.  FSTH offers youth the opportunity to enhance public open spaces and maintain them into the future, to protect native ecosystems and to improve habitat for plant and animal species.   Local propagation and restoration work provides habitat for endangered and sensitive plant, bird, and butterfly species and inspires students to become lifelong ecological stewards.

During the school year, FSTH informs and involves youth in the plant life cycle.  Students collect seeds and prepare them for propagation by “seed cleaning,” or threshing and winnowing.  Seeds are placed in cold stratification to simulate winter conditions and then spread in the spring to germinate under a protective hoop house built by students.  Native forb and grass starts are planted in the fall.  Curriculum consists of flexible lesson plans, activities, and field trips relative to the fall, spring, and winter seasons.  Supplies and field trips are funded by WRP; we consistently seek out grant funding to help cover costs.

Each fall, the Education Coordinator introduces the program to new classrooms.  Students’ first field trip is to plant last year’s starts at one of the restoration areas.  Fall lessons introduce botany, seed dissemination, plant life cycle and photosynthesis.  Fall activities include seed cleaning and hoop house construction or maintenance. In the winter, FSTH lessons cover dormancy and germination, the greenhouse effect, food webs and compost.  Classes are instructed in the process of cold stratification and during winter the cold stratified seeds are kept in refrigeration.  Upon the arrival of spring, seeds are planted in student-prepared pots and placed in a hoop house.  Spring lessons educate students on local habitats, pollinators, the parts of a flower and birds like the Western Meadowlark that rely on prairie sites. Greenhouses are prepared with shade cloth and irrigation for the summer, and weeding is performed.  The highlight of spring is an educational tour of sites in bloom and an identification scavenger hunt.