From left to right: Intern DeAnna Clum, students Liam Gardner, James Olsen, Max Homrich and Claire Gault visiting a garden in Grand Rapids.

Be on the lookout this summer for eight local high school students working in their community to protect its water resources. Through a program with Trout Unlimited’s Rogue River Home Rivers Initiative, the Green Team of students are spending their summer learning about the Rogue River and creative ways to manage its major pollutant—stormwater runoff—with green infrastructure.

Rockford High School students Max Homrich and James Olsen installing a rain garden for a property owner on Rum Creek.

The June team, comprised of Liam Gardner, Max Homrich, James Olsen, and returning member Claire Gault, are led by local landscaper and native plant specialist Georgia Donovan. During their four weeks, the students will be working on public and private lands to install and maintain rain gardens, bioswales, and other native landscaping techniques in Rockford, Cedar Springs, and Sparta.

In addition to field work, the students will be working with their partner Green Team downstream in Plaster Creek—taking classes at Calvin College, working in the greenhouse with Plaster Creek Stewards, and meeting professionals in the environmental field for valuable job training. Although many of the students hope to pursue a career in aquatic ecology and biology, the knowledge they are gaining through this experience will help them make good decisions as a citizen of the planet in every aspect of their life.

If you see the Green Team working on riparian buffers to Rum Creek in Rockford, or planting a rain garden by CS Tool Engineering in Cedar Springs, or landscaping Sparta Area Schools’ campuses with native vegetation, be sure to say hi and thank them for their efforts to protect the Rogue River across the watershed.

The Green Team is supported by a grant through the Environmental Protection Agency.