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Teaching kids about native plants

We strive to educate the community about watershed ecology, and to develop a growing group of people who understand the strengths, needs, and problems affecting the Plaster Creek watershed. We seek to equip people to take action to restore their watershed. Ways we do this include: 

  • Presentations on watersheds, history and issues in the Plaster Creek Watershed, and things people can do to improve water quality in Plaster Creek 
  • Seasonal events, which include a presentation on Plaster Creek and opportunities to participate in on-the-ground restoration work 
  • School partnerships that include education in the classroom and hands-on-restoration work in the greenhouse, schoolyard, or nearby location 
  • Newsletters twice a year that update followers present new information as it is learned 
  • Resources for more learning about this and other watersheds

Teach FASTly: Faith and Science Activities for your classroom made by teachers for teachers 

Watershed Ecology Map Activity

Growing Native Plants in the Classroom

Reconciliation Ecology: A New Paradigm for Advancing Creation Care

Reconciliation Ecology: A Christian Pedagogy of Place

Early History of Kee-No-Shay

Potomac Highlands Watershed School: online activities for watershed learning

Find My Watershed map tool

Datawise Evaluation of Plaster Creek Stewards

Creek-Friendly Practices for HOAs

Curb Cut Rain Garden Maintenance Booklet

Parkway Pocket Maintenance Booklet

2022

Evaluating Which Native Species Are Best to Include in Green Infrastructure Projects

Ken-O-Sha: Working for Reconciliation in a West Michigan Watershed

2021

Trees to Heal the Plaster Creek Watershed

2019

Dwelling: Our Watershed in Image and Word

The Buzz About Watershed Restoration: Helping Streams Helping Insects

2018

Fixing the Banks: Future Investment with Native Plant Currency

Effects of Climate Change on Aquatic Ecosystems of the Great Lakes Region

A Majority of Adults in Michigan’s 3 rd District Support Action to Limit Climate Change 

How Will Climate Change Affect Michigan's 3rd District?

2017

Returning Home: Reconciling Human Impacts Using Native Plants

Displaced Dirt: Keeping Sediment out of Streams

2016

Connecting Urban Neighborhoods with Their Creeks

Inspiration from History: The Remembered Past of Plaster Creek

Creek Friendly Yards: Intentional Landscaping in the Plaster Creek Watershed

2015

Alger Heights versus "The Flash"

Alger Heights Neighborhood Rain Garden Project

Fighting for the Watershed in the Absence of an Enemy: Shifting our Thinking of Rain

2014

Rain Gardens on Steroids: Fighting Stormwater Pollution with Trees and Bio-swales in the Plaster Creek Watershed

A Healthy Watershed: Magnet for Birds and Butterflies

2013

Hidden Waters: The Secret Life of Silver Creek

Rainscaping to Reduce Our Stormwater Footprint

Wildflowers in the Watershed: The Good, the Bad, and the Weedy

2012

Loving our Downstream Neighbor: From Plaster Creek to the St. Lawrence River

Deep Roots: The Importance of Trees for a Healthy Watershed

2011

When It Rains... It Pours: Where Rain Goes

The Unfolding of Plaster Creek Stewards

2010

Watershed Awakening: Connecting College and Community to a Shared Place

Other topics of interest

Plaster Creek: Profile of a Human-dominated Watershed

Introduction to Plaster Creek Watershed Restoration Initiative

Loving Our Downstream Neighbor

Environmental Justice and Plaster Creek

Reconciliation Ecology: A new and helpful paradigm in the evolving lexicon of creation care

Groundswell Teacher Professional Development Days

Learning in Place:Education, Research, and Action in the Plaster Creek Watershed

Rainscaping for Watershed Restoration

Healthy Watersheds and Their Plants

Watershed Quiz

Periodically we update our community on topics in and around our work in the watershed. This page is an archive of past e-newsletters. Get your copy hot off the internet (save the trees) by signing up for our mailing list.

Programs

PCS Green Team planting

Green Team

The PCS Green Team is a three-week paid summer position for high school students who live, learn, or worship in the Plaster Creek Watershed

Project GreenER

Project GreenER

Project GreenER is a free, eight-session adult educational program that fosters understanding of and builds agency for watershed care

PCS Planting with Evergreen Christian School

School Partnerships

PCS partners with local K-12 schools to implement place-based learning, classroom activities, and student-led restoration projects

Project GreenER is a free, eight-session adult educational program intended to foster understanding of and build agency for watershed care. Hosted by Plaster Creek Stewards, this program equips participants with the knowledge and practical skills to implement creek- and climate-friendly projects within their communities. Meeting twice monthly, participants explore Plaster Creek as a historical and present place, learn watershed ecology within the context of climate resilience, build practical and community connection skills, and be eligible to receive funding to plan and implement green projects in their own neighborhoods. 

Who can participate?

Any adults (18+) who are connected in some way to the Plaster Creek watershed – such as living, working, attending worship, or recreating in the area.

You're qualified!

Yes! No prior knowledge or education is necessary to participate in this program. If you are interested in learning more about Plaster Creek, your watershed neighbors, and how to improve local environmental health through community-based action, then this opportunity may be a good fit for you. 

What’s required of participants?

Commitment to regular attendance of the sessions and seeing the project work through to completion.

Timeline

Learning sessions will be scheduled out over 4 months, every other week, typically on weekday evenings. The first half hour of each meeting will be dedicated to building community over a meal. Participants will also be invited to attend extra hands-on experiences outside of normal meeting times, as opportunities arise and participants’ schedules allow. Additional assignments between classes will be offered, as well, to deepen engagement and allow participants to follow their own curiosities.

Logistics

Cost

There is currently no charge for this program. However, if participants would like to contribute to the project fund, those contributions (in addition to grant funding available) will be divided equally among all participants at the program's end to support their projects. The projects might include things like rain gardens, landscaping with native plants, planting trees, hosting educational events, or other activities that interest participants.

Transportation assistance

If transportation assistance is required, please communicate with leadership to receive bus passes for transportation to and from sessions.

Meeting locations

We intend for this program to be an in-person experience since so much of our ecological restoration work and community engagement efforts are place-based and hands-on. Meetings will be held at one or both of the following locations:

  • Garfield Park Neighborhood Association
  • Bunker Interpretive Center