Over the course of a week, from October 6 - 10, students at Frank Ney Elementary worked with NALT school water stewards educators to plant native plants and create amphibian habitat in the riparian area where Walley Creek flows past the school.  This has the benefit of teaching children about native plants and ecosystem health, and hopefully building empathy for the plants so they don't get trampled during learning and play.

On November 10 a group of staff, students and families from the school finished planting the area where blackberry was removed in August along the paved path between Harry Wipper and the school. We're planting thimbleberry to replace the blackberry, and other native plants that will provide shade to the creek, habitat for animals, and food for people!

It was exciting to begin work at Frank Ney Elementary school this summer, near the headwaters of Wally Creek. Staff at the school will be working with the NALT school water stewards program to begin restoration of an area used as an outdoor classroom.  Access to the "gulley" is steep, and students love sliding down the muddy banks.  On rainy days they play like otters, climbing and sliding on the slope.  Unfortunately, this compacted the soil and prevented anything but Himalayan blackberry and Scotch broom from growing.  This area was identified as an ideal opportunity for restoration - as an educational value, and to improve biodiversity beside the creek.

Frank Ney school was built in 2000.  The area around Frank Ney and to the north used to be boggy wetland, and we believe the stream was dug out to drain water away from where the school was built.   When the school was expanded in 2018, engineers designed rammed earth pillars to support the addition that would withstand subsidence in the event of an earthquake. 

The outdoor classroom area, or "gully" has soft, silty soil that gets very wet in the winter months, and blooms with skunk cabbage in the spring.    Unfortunately, reed canary grass has also taken over in this soggy area.  We know reed canary grass seeds can survive for many years, and is very challenging to suppress.  In Burnaby, there is a test area where thick black plastic is being used to smother the reed canary grass before attempting to replant with native species.  We're going to use thick layers of cardboard around our native planting, covered with dense layers of wood chips, to suppress invasives.

We started with a late summer work party to involve students and families in removing invasives and getting to know the purpose of this work, and connecting with each other! Besides doing some important work to reverse the damage done by human activity, we want people to have fun and spend time together in nature.  It was a satisfying start to this part of our restoration efforts.

We have initiated a project with Frank J Ney school (upper reaches of Walley Creek) that would take place over three or more years, where we'd invite students and families of the elementary school to get involved with invasive species removal and finding a balance between children accessing the area for exploration and learning while encouraging ecological health. 

Module 8 of the Streamkeepers handbook is all about preventing domestic animals from having unlimited access to the stream.  We sometimes joking refer to the children that play in the riparian area as livestock, but the truth is they can have a very serious negative impact on the plant community by unknowingly trampling everything while engaged in their busy imaginative and construction play.

One teacher had the brilliant idea of telling the children that it hurts the trees when their "toes" (exposed roots) get stepped on.  After a year of reminding the children, there are now ferns and salmonberry bushes growing up in between the trees "toes" in this place between the school and the creek.

An important goal of our Streamkeepers group is providing opportunities for young people and their families to connect to nature, and enjoy the mental health benefits of time outdoors, especially in creative or community-minded endeavors.  While we want to limit the children's access to the streambed (to protect aquatic invertebrates, salamanders, frogs, and fish) we want them to KNOW this place and learn with and from its seasonal cycles.   We look forward to beginning this project with the school, as a learning opportunity, community building endeavor, and ecological restoration project.

aerial photo of Frank J Ney Elementary and adjacent green space