Hands-on ag experience helps make their lessons memorable

CERES -- A half-mile-long raised dirt driveway splits 33 acres of zinfandel grapes from a field of pinot noir. But when ag teacher Ken Moncrief looks at the divider, he sees connections.

Dozens of Central Valley High students from ag and science classes helped edge the strip with native shrubs and grasses recently.

For them, the three-day hands-on ag experience made lessons memorable. Wildlife organizations overseeing the project spread awareness while creating a corridor for migrating birds. Farmer Jim DeMartini will get a bevy of beneficial insects with the brush.

Much like in nature, all the different needs and solutions intertwined — a kind of educational ecosystem.

"It's so challenging now with all the state standards and testing to try to have time for kids to come out and hands-on learn, to do what science and ag are all about," Moncrief said. "These are things the kids are going to remember forever."

Students came in November to help prepare the site. Last week, they planted, and in the spring they'll be back to check on their plants.

Freshman Sorrayar Sounthala said in ag biology class she's learning how to care for plants. Planting a wild rose in the soft dirt, she said, helps her see "how it mattered."

Matthew Menor said in Advanced Placement biology he's learning about photosynthesis and plant ecology. As he pressed dirt around a wild lilac, he said the hands-on program "gives us, like, a head start."

Robert Lerma said his AP environmental science course focuses on ecology. Working to plant a coffee berry sprout, he said that "bringing back the native birds, native bugs" is exactly that.

Freshman Daisy Ochoa said working in the sun and the soil brought home the photosynthesis lessons, but there's a larger reason she liked the project. "Everybody's doing something to change — even if its a small part — the world," she said.

The real eco-issue is that farms with vast tracts of one plant aren't insect-friendly and draw few birds.

DeMartini's three miles of Tuolumne River frontage are home to 43 varieties of birds. In his fields, however, watchers only spotted six.

The planted driveway will offer an insect-friendly runway through the farm — an ag application that's eco-friendly, said Meghan Hertel, with Audubon California. "I think people think they're in opposition, but they can work together," she said.

Hertel helped choose the bird- and bug-friendly plants, picking shrubs that flower or make berries for much of the year, avoiding those that host vineyard diseases.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bought the plants and drip irrigation materials, about half the estimated $20,000 total cost for the multiday program, said Matt Lloyd. He works with the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, which will get a welcoming flyway for birds between refuges out of this program.

The Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership, working with Audubon California, provided expertise in plant selection.

The Center for Land-Based Learning brought curriculum and on-site instruction. Ceres Unified sent the students. DeMartini, who also serves as a county supervisor, offered the land and tilled the planting area.

"We try to leverage funds to increase the amount of habitat. The students are getting a learning experience. We're getting what could be expensive labor," Lloyd said.