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Access to all the learning areas of the Poudre Learning Center (PLC) has not been possible for visitors confined to wheel chairs or that have other walking difficulties: young families with strollers and wagons, senior citizens with canes, and walkers. The PLC is located on a natural flood plain along the Poudre River. When it floods from time to time, the PLC incorporates the consequences of the flooding into its educational curriculum. The PLC also has year-round wetlands that are educational resources. There are some wet seasons when areas are not accessible by anyone, regardless of mobility. Raised walkways (boardwalks) over the water would solve all of these issues for many of the educational areas of the PLC.
This project is to establish boardwalks which wind through some of the wetland features along the way from the parking lots to the main educational building. The project also involves moving, and installing a donated, wooden bridge.
The boardwalks will have two main routes. One shorter route leads along a meander scar filled with water, cattails, and some aquatic life, and arrives at a concrete walkway, (currently under construction), offering direct access to the educational building. The second route winds from the parking lot through the meadows, grasses and wetland features to the donated bridge which crosses over the meander scar. The walkway continues on along the meander scar and gently winds up a small hill to the educational building.
The boardwalks will create opportunities for visitors of all mobility levels to get up close to see and hear the birds and other living things. The walkways also provide the smell of the flower fragrances that make up a wetland. (Exhibit A) The walkways will also have adjoining deck areas (Exhibit B) to stop and rest or on which to hold larger class educational activities viewing the wetlands and the surrounding prairie and river landscapes. (Exhibit C)
The most obvious area of focus is Basic Education and Literacy. The Poudre Learning Center is an experiential, hands on, learning center. Students come from the surrounding school districts on educational field trips. The school teachers and sometimes educational volunteers at the PLC plan activities using nature as the context to teach science technology, engineering and math (STEM). From the wetland raised walks, students will collect wetland insects, learn their names and life cycles and learn to recognize their larvae in the water. Certain larvae only live in unpolluted water. By learning to recognize these species, students can determine the water quality of the wetland. Pollution discussions lead to increased awareness of our role in Water and Sanitation.
Students learn the names of the birds of the wetland, how they nest, and what they eat. Students learn that the insects are pollinators of flowers and food crops as well as food for birds and fish. Birds also eat seeds and spread some seeds in their droppings. The seeds germinate and grow more flowers. The insects feed on the nectar in the flowers as they pollinate them. Insects feed birds and birds feed insects. As students discover the connectedness in nature they can ponder our connectedness with nature too. It becomes more important to cooperate with nature since we are a part of it. Students learn to take care of the environment for themselves and for future generations.
Another area of focus is Economic and Community Development. The boardwalks will be built using volunteer labor. Volunteers from local oil companies are grading the soil, Environmental groups care about preserving the wetlands by educating people about the role of wetlands in water purification processes. Helping to build the boardwalks furthers their objectives. People of all ages are volunteering to help with the build. Young and old, working together on a common goal, increases connection and builds community. Some of the volunteers will be former students at the PLC who were inspired to go into careers in environmental education, geology, environmental engineering, outdoor education, etc.
While it may not be a goal of the raised walkway, Peace and Conflict Prevention and Resolution are certainly a value utilized in committee meetings, interactions with surrounding neighborhoods, and the public relations involved with every aspect of the PLC mission to encourage interaction with the outdoors and put the "wow factor" to work in a person's learning experiences.
The raised walkways create an invitation for people to be in nature as well as discover the many learning opportunities provided by the PLC : food growing, archery, catch and release fishing, water safety, ice safety, river safety, personal water consumption, well watch programs which track the levels of ground water in various well sites in the county, Caring for our Watershed activities, astronomy, animal tracking, Indian lore, soil health, composting, the nutritional value of wild plants, the role of snakes and worms and many more topics.
The main goal for the Educational focus would be increased access to the wetland educational areas for all visitors especially the mobility impaired or challenged. With the availability of the boardwalks in the wetlands, the PLC will be in a better position to reach out to the Senior and retirement homes and communities in the area to plan educational field trips for residents.
The PLC staff currently monitors the number of visitors that make arrangements to formally visit the PLC for a provided educational experience. They will add to their documentation the number of mobility impaired visitors the PLC gets. There is also a goal to increase the number of all visitors. The Executive Director, also a Rotarian, Ray Tschillard and the Program Manager, Susan Payne would have the ultimate responsibility to see that this documentation is done.
The main goal of the Economic and Community Development focus would be to reach out to The Greeley Center for Independence which serves people living with mobility issues caused by traumatic brain injuries as well as to other institutions involved with physical therapy and recovery to use the raised walkway nature path for recreation, education, inspiration, and recovery activities. Some of these people might be encouraged to find jobs in water management, nature education, or environmental sciences.
A second goal of the Economic and Community Development focus is bringing together a wide variety of community citizens and organizations to help construct the boardwalks in the wetlands. This not only helps create the raised walkway, but also provides opportunities for people to come together, get to know each other and become connected as a community in a common service activity. In Rotary, friendship forms the basis for service. The friendships formed in this project serve as a connection to support other cooperative service projects in the community. The project provides an opportunity for community service hours for High School students as part of their graduation requirements. The project can also provide hands on experience for students in the vocational and trade schools for a construction project with many types of skills involved.
The same PLC staff would measure the increases in participation by the residents of senior facilities. the number of High School students who volunteer to help with programs, the number of organizations that increase their partnership with the PLC through participation and sharing support in many ways. Success would also be measures by an increase in the number of visitors.
Additions to the original Project Description requested:
The project budget has been adjusted to move $600 from the contingency line item to a line item for Publicity of the Rotary involvement. We have been relatively successful in obtaining news release publications at no cost. However, if needed, we have committed $600 for newspaper and or radio recognition. We are also planning a Rotary Wheel sign at the entrance to the walkway, possibly listing the 4-way test. The name of the raised walk is planned to be "Rotary Way".
Rotarians have been involved in planning, design and seeking local businesses to consider in-kind donations once the project has been given approval. The PLC staff will be handling some of the construction work. However, the plan is for most of the construction to be completed by Rotarian and community volunteers. We expect at least 15 to 20 Rotarians from the local clubs to participate. We also have three Rotaract clubs that will be included in some of the hands-on activities. In addition, there are two businesses that have suggested volunteer days for their employees: Home Depot and Sheels Outdoor Store. This is truly a Rotary driven project with much community involvement.
The sustainability comes from the community support and the Cooperating organizations of the school districts, the City of Greeley, the PLC Board and the PLC Foundation Board. The maintenance of the walkways will be part of the PLC annual budget.
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