A.E. Wright breaks ground on native 'teaching' garden
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers FOOTWORK- A.E. Wright Middle School sixth-grader Max Goldwasser, 11, with the aid of his casted broken foot, takes part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the school's native landscaping garden project. Assisting are, from left, Resource Conservation District's Melina Watts, Blake Jesse, Jamie Rineheart, Makaila Wilson, Stephen Vodantis, Michelle Naeem and Principal Steve Rosentsweig.

A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas is going wild. Thanks to the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, the school will have a native "teaching" garden installed near the play fields.

The "Go Wild" garden project was funded with Proposition 50 money from the State Water Resources Control Board, said Melina Watts, Malibu Creek Watershed Coordinator for the conservation district.

On April 7, school and conservation officials broke ground at the school to install a waterwise, native Californian garden.

"What's great about the garden is that it gives us an opportunity to create something that is educational, beautifies the school campus and, at the same time, provides environmental benefits," said Steve Rosentsweig, principal at A.E. Wright Middle School. "That's three benefits in one garden."

Sara Alexander, of Rodriguez & Satterthwaite Design Build Landscape in Topanga, designed the garden. She said the purpose of the garden is to catch rain water and irrigation runoff from the school's sports fields. "All of these plants adapt to flooding as well as drought," Alexander said.

"The planted swale will be temporarily flooded each day when the sprinklers turn on, as well as during seasonal rainfall," Alexander said. The ditch allows polluted runoff, including fertilizer, car oil residue and other elements, to be cleansed through the "interaction of the solid and plant material," she said.

"This planted swale drains directly into the Las Virgenes Creek wildlife corridor," Alexander said. "The goal of the 'Go Wild' grant is to improve water quality in adjacent, habitat-rich, riparian corridors."

Irene Quinones, project manager, said the grant requires that the water leaving A.E. Wright's ball fields must be purified before it enters the creek. "We have to demonstrate water quality improvement," she said. The firm already completed water quality testing but will have to repeat the process once the garden is installed, she said.

A.E. Wright sixthgrade science teacher, Gayle Unzueta, said the garden will be a perfect teaching tool for her students since they learn about botany in sixth grade.

"The students will be involved in planting, maintaining and utilizing samples (of plants) for study," Unzueta said. "And one of the hopes in this project is that it is an educational outreach. We hope kids will take this home to their own backyard."

The grant, Quinones said, totals $321,000, but the money must pay for teaching gardens at four schools. Gardens are in the planning stages for Malibu High School, Webster Elementary School in Malibu, and University High School in Los Angeles, she said.

Plants are expected to be delivered to A.E. Wright within a few weeks, Alexander said. They will include white alder, a deciduous tree that will grow up to 60 feet high; California gray rush, a two-foot evergreen; deer grass; and meadow sedge, an evergreen perennial.

"The design itself creates opportunities for students to interact with the landscape through its central location and functional bridges," Alexander said.