Morris Area School

153 S Columbia Ave , Morris, MN 56267
Cheryl Kuhn, ckuhn@morris.k12.mn.us

Pomme de Terre River Shoreline Restoration

Community engagement

The City of Morris, about 20 years ago carved out a pool along the Pomme De Terre River Shoreline. The pool was used for many years; about five years ago the City abandoned the pool. Last summer the City built a splash park close to the old pool site and began to fill in the old pool. The City received a citation from the DNR for changing what now had become a native wetland area. The City had to immediately stop filling the abandoned pool site in. The Morris Area Student Energy Leadership Team (SELT) partnered with the City to improve the area by turning the shoreline into a natural setting with native plants, shrubs, trees and animal habitat. Partners in the project: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources supplied the native plants, mulch, and curriculum. The Stevens County Soil and Water Conservation District provided native grass seed, adult coordinators, and specialist in water shed instruction. The students in the Morris Area High School Environmental Science class along with the SELT learned about native wetland plants, shoreline ecosystems , water shed and water quality and then applied what they learned to the shoreline restoration project by restoring the “old Pool site” into a natural shoreline for bot people and animals to enjoy and learn from.

The goal of this project was to increase our communities knowledge of water systems and how protecting our river and the river habitat has a direct impact on the water we drink, the food we eat and the amount of energy that can be save by beginning water treatment for human consumption with cleaner water.

School Wide Recycling - Everyone Must do Their Part

Energy conservation

The Morris Area High School Student Energy Leadership Team purchased containers and set up plastic, aluminum, glass and paper recycling throughout the Morris Area School District. The students then wrote recycling curriculum for grades k-12 teachers to teach in their classrooms. The curriculum taught what recycling is, how to recycle in the school district, gave tips about how to recycle at home and taught about the amount of carbon that can be reduced by recycling. The students also wrote Public Service Announcements to be read at all extra and co – curricular activities in which large groups are gathered in the Morris School District. The PSA lets people know that the school district recycles and how to use the recycling containers. The recyclables are collected and sorted by a different 5-12th grade classroom each Tuesday. The students are not aware of when their class will be recycling – this inhibits the student from dumping trash into the recycling containers – it may be their turn to collect and sort the recycling.

To teach students and our community about recycling and to reduce our school districts carbon by recycling.

County Wide Electronic Waste Collection

Energy conservation

The Morris Area Student Energy Leadership Team SELT along with the Morris Area Student Leaders learned about the environmental hazards found in electronics, the impacts on the environment of not recycling, and how to properly recycle electronics. The students then contacted the Stevens County Environmental Department and partnered with them to plan and host a FREE county electronic wasted collection.

The electronics waste recycling day on was a huge success. Over 125,000 pounds of electronics was collected by 75 adult and student volunteers. The service portion of the project was a five-hour, free drop-off service for the citizens of Stevens County to properly recycle electronic waste. The electronics were taken to a local recycling company and the recyclable components were properly recycled and the hazardous materials such as lead and mercury were either recycled or disposed of in a safe and responsible manner.

To offer a free program for the citizens of Stevens county that would 1) properly dispose of electronic 2) reduce the amount of hazardous materials in our local landfill 3) reuse materials cutting the carbon emission of making new and 4) educate the students, volunteers and citizens of Stevens county about the hazards of electronic waste.