Biodiversity loss within Naperville is getting restored with the help of senior Sabrina Tse and fellow students, who are planting a “tiny forest” in Central’s honor garden.
Tse worked with about 40 students from Humanities Capstone classes to plant 37 different species of trees on Oct. 18 as part of her Illinois Global Scholar Capstone project. Students skimmed sod and turned over soil for IGS’s service learning requirement.
Tse’s project focused on helping students understand and learn about biodiversity, which led her to focus on giving students the experience of planting the trees themselves. Though it was originally planned for May of last school year, an influx of cicadas caused the project to be delayed.
“[Students] have to learn about biodiversity in tandem with doing the monitoring and seeing the forest,” Tse said. “They learn about tiny forests, but they also learn about the adverse effects of biodiversity loss.”
Having grown up near Knoch Knolls park and seeing the impact of biodiversity, Tse saw firsthand the importance of nature in urban and suburban areas.
“I think it’s really sad that as I get older, and we get older as a civilization and as a society, we have lost a lot of our biodiversity,” Tse said.
The tiny forest received $10,000 in funding from the Society for Biodiversity Preservation, IGS, Freemasons of Naperville and the Clifford Crone Foundation. Other organizations also helped by donating materials such as fertilizer, dumpsters and mulch.
The tiny forest will provide learning opportunities for years to come, according to Tse. Students in plant science and AP Biology will be able to test and experiment with the trees, examining carbon sequestration, soil stability and temperature.
Humanities Capstone teacher Seth Brady hopes Tse’s project will inspire other students to do things in the community to benefit others that reflect their own passions and hopes.
“Given all of the issues we have in this world we need a whole generation of action takers,” Brady said.