Hidden in plain sight for years behind Warwick Academy’s car park was a three-quarter acre overgrown scrub that had been taken over by invasive trees, vines, rats and trash. Over the last year, however, it has been transformed into a woodland oasis by the school’s Natural History Club. Now it is home to a pollinator garden, tree houses, dens, forts, a zen garden and a large circular clearing with casuarina stools and benches.
Head of the club is science technician and sustainability co-ordinator Rosalind (Roz) Wingate, assisted by her daughter, Roxy Crockwell-Laurent. While much of the clearing and cleanup has been a whole school community effort, spearheading the project on the student side has been Wingate’s “action committee” of Jaxon Pachai, 12, Bram Wiseman, 13, Salem Jackson-Smith, 13, and Francesca Cressall-Haycock, 12.
“Beforehand, this whole area had tons of plants growing over everything. Layers of deadwood everywhere. It was up to above your waist when you walked in here,” explains Wiseman. Now, adds Pachai, “There’s a zen place over there, people could come, look at nature, maybe have some fun climbing trees. It’s fun to see how high you can go.” Pachai’s favourite tree to climb is a casuarina located in an area of the woodland the children call Jaxonville after it’s “founder.” About seven feet up, large branches open out to create the perfect resting spot. “It’s really comfortable. There’s a back rest and everything,” he says with a smile.
While it might have been tempting to go in with chainsaws and machetes blazing, an important lesson the children learned was that removing too many invasives too quickly will cause the ground to germinate with other invasive species. “What we’re doing is called selective clearing, so over time we can slowly get rid of invasives and plant new natives so it’s a smoother transition,” explains Wiseman. Not all invasives are bad, however. There’s a ficus Wingate wants to keep because “they make fantastic climbing trees,” and a Mexican pepper that’s allowed to stay because it’s male. “One of the projects we had was to wait for it to flower and figure out whether it was male or female,” she explains. “If it was female, then it was going to produce berries and contribute to more Mexican peppers, but if it’s male, then it won’t, and it’s still a beneficial tree for bees so it would be able to stay.” It stayed, and its impressive structure has become the perfect spot for a den. “We’ve had lots of groups of kids out here,” she laughs. “Dens are popping up all over the place. Every time I come out here there’re new dens.” Wiseman also wants to keep an existing allspice area, especially as in parts it has grown to create what he calls the “allspice gate,” adding to the sense of adventure in this hidden place.
They did, however, clear away thick blankets of balloon vines and morning glory as well as the deadwood, which was chipped by Bermuda arborist David McCann. Trails were then carved out using the path of least resistance and the woodchips used to line the clearing and suppress invasives. Other companies who donated their time, equipment and expertise include Dynamic Construction, JAG Construction and Bermuda Green Thumb. The goal, continues Wingate, is to create biodiversity so, in addition to planting some natives and endemics, there are also ornamental, sensory and pollinating species. There is already a loquat tree and, in the future, they hope to add more fruit trees and perennial edible plants so “you can stroll through at any time and grab a snack out of the trees.”
Close to 40 juvenile palmettos, which were propagated in Warwick’s plant nursery, have been planted by the children around the central clearing and down the path, with stone circles around their bases created by Cressall-Haycock. “I did that because they were quite small so some people would step on them,” she explains. “The stone circles help people to be more aware.” Other newly planted trees include a line of olivewoods separating the woodland from the carpark. “They won’t grow into a big tree like a casuarina,” says Jackson-Smith. “They create a natural barrier for our woodland and that creates privacy. You don’t want big trees that are towering over the centre and you can’t get sunlight.” They also provide a windbreak, protecting the other plants growing inside, in particular a colourful garden by the entrance which is heaving with bees and butterflies, and includes sunflowers, mustard, cosmos and mock orange.
The woodland is a work in progress and the children are bursting with ideas for how to develop it. Cressall-Haycock would love to create an obstacle course, and Wingate has already earmarked an area that would be ideal for a “tree net.” Another future project is to find a more sustainable way to control the rat population without using poison because, as Wiseman explains, it kills the native barn owls when they eat the poisoned rats. The children, however, actually quite like the rats and have even given them names, but they do concede that they impact the potential for birds to nest here. There’s already a nesting pair of white-eyed vireos.
Feedback to the woodland “classroom” has been very positive, and it isn’t only used for dens, forts and games of hide-and-seek. Teachers are even holding some of their classes out there. “Some of them are incorporating what’s here into their lessons. Some are enjoying taking their learning into an outdoor space just for a change of scenery,” says Wingate.
For the Natural History Club action committee, however, “it’s a way we can express our passion for nature in a fun way. It gets you outdoors! It’s a lot more fun than staying inside cramped, playing video games,” says Jackson-Smith. “It’s 100 times funner than debate club,” adds Wiseman.
