The Wakefield Wildlife Conservation Club (WWCC) is working to handbuild 100 bluebird boxes, and the students are more than halfway there.
The boxes will be used in a scientific study by Dr. Amy Johnson of Virginia Working Landscapes, a program of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. The program promotes the conservation of native biodiversity and sustainable land management through research, education and community engagement.
Every club member has worked meticulously to ensure their respective bluebird homes are flawless when they’re deployed and mounted later this winter, and that the houses will last for many seasons of analysis to come.
The club has worked on several other projects over the course of the year — members have tended the pollinator garden on Wakefield’s campus, which they created in the year prior, as well as added a trail camera near the blossoms to catch any Monarch butterflies or hummingbirds stopping to take advantage.
To add to their campus stewardship, the students have also begun logging native plants and animals spotted on school grounds in the iNaturalist app which assists in species identification and allows the club to add to a worldwide biodiversity database of plant and animal locations.
The hard work of the WCDS Wildlife Conservation Club’s members has made it apparent that whether a lifelong resident of Rappahannock, or one who has come to view the county mainly from the windows of a classroom, anyone can appreciate the area’s natural beauty and should fight to sustain it.