On Friday, October 4th, 2 acres of PF Pollinator seed was planted at the site of the St. Clair County Pheasants Forever's habitat project at Kingsley and Metcalf Roads in Clyde Township. 23 fifth graders from John F. Farrell-Emmett Elementary School sowed the seed by hand. Last spring the students participated in a presentation led by Matt Lefler (MI PF Education and Outreach Coordinator) and assisted by Yale High School students from Mr. Steve Barr's Natural Science class. During the presentation the students participated in a pollinator seed ball activity, a dice monarch migration activity, viewing of live pheasant chicks and hands on experiences with pheasant pelts, and a pollinator free sandwich activity. The students were prepped to plant the pollinator mix following the presentation, but Mother Nature had other plans, and a very wet spring delayed the planting until now.
MI PF Regional Field Representative Melissa Gildemeister, MI DNR Wildlife Biologist Kaitlyn Barnes, MI DNR Conservation Officer Bob Watson assisted Erich Scheinpflug (Chapter Vice President) and Bob Watson (Chapter Sec./Treas.) in directing the 23 students from Mrs. Melissa Zakrzewski’s class on the day’s task. The students did a wonderful job of mixing the seed with pine shavings (used as a filler/carrier) and sowing the seed. The day’s activity ended with a pollinator plant id activity. A huge thank you goes out to John F. Farrell-Emmett Elementary School for participating in this project. A special thank you to Mr. Corey Reid (Principal) and Mrs. Jody Zickgraf and Mrs. Melissa Zakrzewski for setting aside time for their students to participate in this activity.
The final 3 acres of the project will be drilled later in the fall. Look for further updates as the project gets closer to completion.