Body of Health in the Big One

"Once Upon a Wetland…” is a project of Oak Grove School in partnership with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Meiners Oaks Elementary School, and Nordhoff High School. Our goal is to connect these students with their own backyard, their home, their place-- in other words, their watershed-- by engaging them in the restoration and stewardship of the historic wetland located on the Ojai Meadow Preserve, a 58-acre open space directly adjacent to all three schools.

Students of all grade levels are working to restore native plant communities out on the meadow by propagating and planting native plants, as well as removing invasive weeds. Students are also helping out with authentic scientific monitoring and other stewardship activities including: water quality monitoring, soil sampling and testing, wildlife surveys, plant success rate monitoring, litter removal, etc.

In the process of caring for our wetland, students are also learning about the importance and value of a healthy watershed community, with emphasis on the intrinsic ecological relationships of all things within the watershed and the direct connection of our Ventura River Watershed to the local ocean environment.