Zavala Elementary
Keys to Success
- Grant funding from the National Wildlife Federation
- Committed faculty, staff, and administration
- National Wildlife Federation handbook and leadership
- Student involvement
- The habitat is in a central location, frequented by students
- A complete design
- Research of local resources and public spaces/habitats
- Saturday workdays (Austin Rotary has a “Service Austin” website)
Challenges
- Needed a fence and video surveillance
- Shopping for materials and figuring how much to order of different materials
- Maintenance and knowledge about how to maintain different plants
- Staying within a limited budget
"The very first day I was on campus, I looked out the window and saw potential here. I knew that someday we would have a garden here." Sean Fox
"We haven't had 1 instance of graffiti or littering since installing the habitat in this area." Sean Fox
How we made a habitat happen
At the beginning I knew nothing. Our school had received a grant from the National Wildlife Federation for $1500 to create a habitat on campus. At the first meeting with the NWF representative, my principal asked me to be the contact person. I consented, not realizing that this role would morph into something much broader in scope.
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