In Search of Greener Grasses

Students undertake projects to help green the School.
Kumana Prize winners Kipper Berven ’15, Sarah Van Son ’15, and Lukas Ceseña ’15 broke ground on their native grass experiment on the Upper School lawn. The project involves planting dune sedge, which, once established, should use 30 percent to 50 percent of the water needed by a typical fescue turf and has the advantage of going dormant (rather than dying) when unwatered. They’ll also conduct some controlled planting experiments elsewhere to determine just how much less water the dune sedge requires. According to Ed. Bennett, our new director of facilities, this sort of experiment has never been tried. “Basically,” quipped Sarah, “we’re just watching grass grow.”

As part of their ongoing project, the trio replaced some sod in the Middle School Courtyard with dune sedge, a possible turf replacement. “I’m looking forward to seeing it fill in,” says Mr. Bennett, “and reviewing the data the team will be keeping to confirm its performance.”

The turf experiment is just one of two ongoing Kumana Prize projects that will culminate in Senior Exhibition presentations this spring. The other project, an effort to establish a campus system for composting horse manure, was featured in the last issue of Thacher.

What else does sustainability mean to today’s Thacher student activists? For the leaders of the Environmental Action Committee, their environmental awareness and stewardship are benefiting a whole host of community projects, from zero-waste events and eat-local meals to dorm gardens and the Green Cup Challenge. “I’m inspired by the win-win relationship of reducing our environmental impact while simultaneously benefiting our community,” says Nate Currie ’15, student solar head. Students, who once saw recycling as their focus, now embrace ever more ambitious projects.
 
In Thacher’s Hog Program, according to its head Inga Conyngham ’15, “Students feed, care for, and then slaughter the pigs in an effort to become well-informed on the production of their food.” Recently, Inga has focused on coordinating the Hog Program with the Composting Program to further reduce food waste on campus. “We want to develop the initiatives,” offers Lukas, “necessary to make Thacher the sustainable and efficient school we know it can be.”
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Notice of nondiscriminatory policy as to students: The Thacher School admits students of any race, color, national, and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other School-administered programs.