Danbury youth become environmental stewards in new program By Katrina Koerting

Sunday, August 7, 2016  

 

All photos: Scott Mullin / For Hearst Connecticut Media

Fabian Mejia, 15, Simon Shaffer, 17, Digby Barrios, 14 and Lance Shaffer, 14, all of Danbury, discuss the fioliage at Still River Greenway in Danbury as part of a youth stewardship program through the Housatonic Valley Association. The program is called the Still River Watershed Connections.

 

Students spread landscape fabric over invasive Japanese knotweed at Still River Greenway in Danbury as part of a youth stewardship program through the Housatonic Valley Association Thursday.

Simon Shaffer, 17 of Danbury, pulls landscape fabric over invasive Jananese knotweed at Still River Greenway in Danbury as part of a youth stewardship program through the Housatonic Valley Association.

Digby Barrios, 14 of Danbury, gathers stakes to hold down the landscape fabric over invasive Jananese knotweed at Still River Greenway in Danbury as part of a youth stewardship program through the Housatonic Valley Association.

Digby Barrios, 14 of Danbury, puts a stake through the landscape fabric to hold it down over invasive Jananese knotweed at Still River Greenway in Danbury as part of a youth stewardship program through the Housatonic Valley Association.

Lance Shaffer, 14, and Fabian Mejia, 15, both of Danbury, stake landscape fabric over invasive Jananese knotweed at Still River Greenway in Danbury as part of a youth stewardship program through the Housatonic Valley Association.

Simon Shaffer, 17 of Danbury, drives a stake into landscape fabric spread over invasive Jananese knotweed at Still River Greenway in Danbury as part of a youth stewardship program through the Housatonic Valley Association.

Simon Shaffer, 17, and Fabian Mejia, 15, both of Danbury, pull landscape fabric around a tree to cover invasive Jananese knotweed at Still River Greenway in Danbury as part of a youth stewardship program through the Housatonic Valley Association.

Tabatha Lewis, on site supervisor of Still River Watershed Connections, cuts landscape fabric as Fabian Mejia, 15 of Danury, holds the ends. The fabric is to cover invasive Jananese knotweed at Still River Greenway in Danbury.

Digby Barrios, 14, Simon Shaffer, 17, and Lance Shaffer, 14, all of Danbury, pull landscape fabric over invasive Jananese knotweed at Still River Greenway in Danbury as part of a youth stewardship program through the Housatonic Valley Association.

DANBURY — Four teenagers and their team leader spread pieces of black landscape fabric across a clearing, covering the stalks of Japanese knotweed along the Still River Greenway.

They hammered spikes along the edges of the fabric with the hope the dark material will prevent the plant from growing back.

“It’s an invasive species that has overrun the area,” said Digby Barrios, a sophomore at Henry Abbott Technical High School.

This was just one of several projects the students are completing as part of Still River Watershed Connections, an environmental stewardship program started this year in partnership with the Housatonic Valley Association, Danbury Youth Services and the Still River Alliance Commission. The program lasts six weeks and wraps up with a free presentation from the students to the public at noon on Friday at the Still River Greenway.

The watershed is one of 27 work sites through the Danbury Youth Services summer work program and the first focused on the environment. It is open to any Danbury resident between the ages of 14 and 21.

Students are screened and selected by Danbury Youth Services. They are placed at appropriate work sites and paid minimum wage using money from the Department of Labor.

Joseph Dobbins, the program manager at Danbury Youth Services, said they were excited to be able to offer a science placement this summer and that it matched some of the applicants’ interests. He said the pieces fell into place last fall when the Still River Alliance Commission approached them.

Savannah Judge, a conservation technician with HVA, said this summer work was the most extensive part of the greenway stewardship program so far. The Still River Alliance Commission created a position to oversee the Still River work this year and through the HVA, began working with local high schools. About $27,000 has been donated through the Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, the coalition and Environmental Professionals of Connecticut to fund the work for two years.

She said its also part of a larger program the authority is doing to improve the Still River watershed and create a watershed plan.

Lance Shaffer, another member of the team, said the environmental work, especially removing the invasive species, was important.

“It creates a monoculture,” he said of the risk invasive plants pose, adding the stream could carry the seeds to other areas in the city.

The students have also mapped invasive plants and signs along the greenway, removed tires and trash from local water bodies and parks, determined the water pollution based on the amount and types of invertebrates in the water, cleaned picnic tables, painted structures at various parks and cut down thick patches of Japanese knotweed, which bordered the greenway in Danbury.

Fabian Mejia and Simon Shaffer, who are both crew members entering their junior years, said cutting away the 13-feet stalks of Japanese knotweed was their favorite part because of the noticeable progress.

“At first you saw an impenetrable wall of green and a week later it’s gone,” Mejia said.

Tabatha Lewis, the program’s on-site supervisor, said she hopes this program will restore the area back to its natural beauty and remove the invasive plants. She’s seeking volunteers to help continue the work when the summer program ends. Some of the students have already said they plan to return as volunteers.

“My overall hope is to see this place look a little better,” she said. “It’s already beautiful.”

Judge said she hopes the program will help students and volunteers learn about the watershed they live in, as well as offer job experience or introduce students to possible environmental careers.

Judge said she hopes the program will help students and volunteers learn about the watershed they live in, as well as offer job experience or introduce students to possible environmental careers.

Although the teenagers don’t plan to pursue environmental careers, they said they would do it again, adding the information will help them in future science courses.

“Rather than just looking at a book, we have first person experience,” Lance Shaffer said.

All four said they also gained a better appreciation for the environment and role the watershed plays in the health of the area.

“Eventually anything you put in here will go into the Housatonic,” Lance Shaffer.

kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345; @kkoerting