Trees are Bushwhacked at Albany Grade School

When I started teaching the environmental movement was in its early stages. It evolved from earlier efforts to reduce air and water pollution and conserve the environment. The first Earth Day occurred in April 1970, the first spring I was a teacher.

One earlier push by the federal government was soil conservation, a result of the disastrous dust bowl era in the 1930’s. The Department of the Interior provided funds and resources to plant wind and water breaks to reduce erosion. Lady Bird Johnson wanted to improve natural beauty and encouraged everyone to “plant a tree, a shrub, or a bush”. All of this provided a basis for Earth Day.

Albany Grade School was built on a former farm. The acreage was quite large for a school ground, with a nearly football sized acreage on one side, and a large playground and room for a baseball field on the other. There were also about 10 acres that were still being farmed.

Because the school was only one year old, and had been farmed before construction, the superintendent found that the playground areas could be considered as idle farmland. The federal government pays to idle farm ground if it was farmed in the prior five years.. It is called the “Soil Bank” and he put Albany Grade School in to it. That is, the district was paid not to farm the playground. Pretty clever, huh?

I asked for permission to start an environmental area to be used for study on the school grounds. I planned to use the area beyond the football field for part of it, as well the hillside that was not being farmed. I wanted to plant a wildlife attraction area along the side of the football field.

I received information on free seedlings that were provided. Included were Norway spruce,red and white pine trees and autumn olive. Only white pines are native to Illinois, and now autumn olive is considered an invasive species. Back then the autumn olive was to attract song birds. The pines were to act as a wind break.

When the plants arrived, we scheduled a day for planting. The students were to provide the labor and I was to indicate the layout. As a kid on the farm, I couldn't line up a fence line. I did not have any better luck on planting day. The autumn olive bushes along the football field  didn’t really follow anything. Connie and the students and I put two rows of trees alongside the bushes.

The autumn olive was large enough to be seen, but the pine saplings were less than a foot tall. We used wood lath to mark the locations. In addition to the football field line, we planted several trees outside of the end zone and a couple on the hillside. We planted over one hundred (100) trees that day.

The trees then encountered Archie. As the custodian, he had responsibility for mowing the school grounds. I don’t think Archie enjoyed this task, as he frequently wouldn’t do it. Our grass areas were often quite long and covered with dandelions. On one occasion it took a complaint from a school board member to get the area mowed.

I believe he had one goal when mowing, and  that was to get out of the sun as soon as possible. The mowing tractor was quite large, had a loader on the front, and pulled a large “bushhog” mower.

Whatever the reason, difficulty seeing, difficulty steering, or just plain carelessness, all of the pine trees along the football field, along with their wood stakes, were mowed down the first year. Most of the soon to be overgrown, and ugly, autumn olive bushes survived. The only pine trees to survive were two in the end zone and one on the hillside. 

The next year, after suffering through the afternoon sun beating into my science classroom, I started another planting. Not wanting to use hard to see saplings, the students and I dug volunteer maple trees out the ditches near the school. The saplings were 4-5 ft tall, easy to see. We planted them right next to the building by my room, which faced southwest. In a few years, while I was still teaching, they were to provide shade. . We also planted several in the end zone “outdoor classroom” and on the hill.

The PTO thought trees were a good idea, and planted trees along the southwest side of the rest of the building a year later. Unfortunately there was a sidewalk along the area, so the trees were pretty far away from the building. Eventually the trees provided shade, but it took about ten years.

I never developed the outdoor classroom. We did some minor projects, but I did not have the resources to get more done. However, the ecology movement led to establishment of an “Eco Center” staffed by trained teachers and funded with federal dollars.

The Eco Center provided many outstanding programs while I was at Albany. We regularly took students on field trips in differing environments. Each trip involved studying plants, animals, and their environment. Probably the most fun, was the winter trip where students got to cross country ski and tube down the hills at Mississippi Palisades State Park in Savanna, IL. Gerry was active in the program and was named Whiteside County Environmental Teacher of the Year. A year later, I received the same honor, probably because Gerry nominated me.

Environmental science became a fundamental program at all universities. The consensus to save the environment came from all parts of society. The Clean Air Act of 1970, and Clean Water Act of 1972 had a tremendous impact. City air became breathable again. River and lakes became cleaner.

It is unfortunate that the environment has become “political” and that regulations that protected us all are being disassembled. Like our pine trees,  they are being mowed down in less than a year.