CORE Takes Part In Riparian Buffer Month

CORE Academy began serving incoming freshman Pequea Valley High School (PVHS) students in the fall of 2019. The program, whose name stands for Career Occupation Relative Education, focuses on skill development while also offering integrated instruction in math, science, social studies, and English.

Part of that curriculum involves doing regular community service because the program is also designed to teach service, character, and integrity. "We try to do one community service project a month," said teacher Josiah Moon, who brought nearly 10 CORE students to Manheim Township's Overlook Park, 605 Granite Run Drive, on Oct. 28 to help plant trees in celebration of Riparian Buffer Month, which was recognized during October.

Before the students, who were part of a much larger group called Lancaster Clean Water Partners, began planting some of the 800 trees on more than five acres, they listened to speakers who instructed them in how to plant and about the importance of that action. "This is a riparian forested buffer," noted Lamonte Garber, watershed restoration coordinator with Stroud Water Research Center of Avondale, referring to the stream running through the park and the vegetation planted around it. "(Trees) are good for cooling our cities and giving off oxygen, (but) when you (plant) beside a stream, the tree is shading the stream to keep the temperatures down in the summertime, and dropping leaves into a stream feeds aquatic insects that eat leaves." Garber noted that the insects feeding in the stream are then eaten by turtles, fish, and frogs. In addition, the tree roots stabilize the stream bed.

The planting consisted of restoring native plants to Overlook. Varieties of native species that were planted include red maple, river birch, red bud, silky dogwood, hazelnut, persimmon, spicebush, black and red chokeberry, American plum, white spruce, crabapple, steeplebush, pussy willow, and pin oak.

Moon noted that during November, CORE students are taking part in the Adopt-A-Highway program by cleaning up trash along Route 340.

More information about the Pequea Valley education programs may be found at http://www.pequeavalley.org.

Readers who wish to learn more about efforts to improve local water quality may visit https://lancastercleanwaterpartners.com.