Coos Watershed Adds Signs to Landscape

Program: these students are in the Coos Watershed Association’s Watershed Conservation Stewardship Corps program, which is a partnership between the Coos Watershed Association, Destinations Academy (part of the Harding Learning Center), and the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps (funder). The program aims to get high school students out of the classroom and into the community on a weekly basis to work on visible, meaningful projects that improve the health of our watershed (and students are rewarded with academic credit and tuition vouchers to help pay for college/trade school). Two years ago, the 2016 cohort of students were involved in the design and installation of the “ecological landscaping” at the museum, primarily the native dunes, which were previously gravel islands, and the wetland-rain garden, which collects runoff from the museum roof and parking lot and filters it before it enters the bay. The recently-installed interpretive signs lead museum visitors on a walking tour of the parking lot, explaining the reasoning and the function of each patch of native plant landscaping. The signs were designed by the Coos Watershed Association and the Coos History Museum, printed by BNT Promotional Products, and installed by the Coos Watershed Association and youth crew. Take the full tour to understand this “unconventional” type of landscaping and learn about all the community partners that helped this project come together!

Students in the Watershed program: