EWU’s historic One Room Schoolhouse received a makeover geared toward sustainability during the university’s second-annual Campus Clean-Up Day. The event, held May 9, was both a sprucing up initiative and the first step in EWU’s Climate Resiliency Master Plan, which aims, in part, to bring more native and climate resilient plants to the Cheney campus.
Eighty faculty and staff volunteers gathered to plant more than 3,000 of these native plants — species such as Lupine and Arrowleaf Balsamroot — to EWU’s existing landscape.
Over time, the drought-resistant plants will allow groundskeepers to scale back on watering as the grass dies out and the native plants grow.
“We are replicating what the area around the schoolhouse may have looked like when it was first built in 1805,” says Erin Endres, EWU climate resilience specialist and event organizer. “The One Room Schoolhouse planting, along with other projects, will utilize native plants that are adapted to the ecosystem, provide pollinator habitat and require less irrigation over time.”
With the help of biology student interns, Endres grew these native plants from seedlings in EWU’s greenhouse. They used cone containers to support the plants’ growth in advance of their clean-up day planting.
In the future, the Office of Sustainability plans to collaborate with other EWU departments to expand these environment-focused practices across campus, Endres says.
“The overarching goal of the project is to help our campus reflect the natural environment in Cheney,” adds Erik Budsberg, director of sustainability and energy planning. “This project will help Eastern toward its long term transition to hitting those sustainability focused marks.”
Story written by Avery Knochel.
