When our fifth grade teacher, Ms. Smith assigned us a project which involved writing an essay explaining a process in which we could somehow improve our enviornment, we didn't realize that this simple homework assignment would lead to a significant project we would become involved in. One student deveolped an idea that began our project.

According to this fifth grader's essay, our class contacted Champion (now International Paper) in hope to somehow receive a grant and a piece of land that we would preserve and study over time. As a result of our hard work, we finally received a grant allowing us a ten acre piece of land, which included a clear - cut forest, various water sources, and an old, developed forest aswell. Thus, we began our reasearching and preserving.

Since we received the land in 1999, we have accomplished many things with it. Some things that we have done so far include constructing bird houses, putting together a trail made of wood chips, identifying certain plants and wildlife, and completing the construction of a bridge. So far, we have also conducted many scientific reasearch studies pertaining to plant life, animal's inhabiting the area, and various water tests. Mr. Goodwin's second to fourth grade class has also taken part in researching, identifying and working on the land aswell, and we are happy to have them involved.

Champion (International Paper)

The large paper company, International Paper, (formely known as Champion), has played a very important part in our "Land Project". They were truly instrumental in making our project a success. After we had chosen a project based on the essays that we were assigned to write, we decided to contact Champion in order to make our idea a reality. We contacted them in hopes to receive a piece of land in order to experiment, study and preserve. However, a small class of fifth and sixth graders asking a large company for a piece of donated land was a very large step that could easily be a failure. Although, with the help of many Champion workers who assisted us in achieving our goal, we finally received a three year lease for a ten acre piece of land. We had been successful, and from that point on, we began our researching.