| Students create new homes for bluebirds |
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| Students create new homes for bluebirds |
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Garrett praised students' work and recognized sponsors
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If you build it, they will come: Veneta students create new homes to attract bluebirds
Red stars, green peace signs and yellow flowers adorn new birdhouses to be placed around the town of Veneta in hopes of luring bluebirds to nest. Bluebirds are likely to gravitate toward these colorful wood homes designed especially for them and built by students at the recent ODOT educational day at Fern Ridge Middle School and Veneta Elementary School.
The habitat restoration project came about as part of a bridge program project to repair or replace seven bridges around Veneta, west and south of Eugene. Construction will require that some trees be removed near the bridges. As a result, bluebirds, which nest in the cavities that woodpeckers scoop out from older trees and snags, will lose some habitat. The birdhouses assembled by the schoolchildren will give them alternative housing options.
"We started the sessions by introducing ourselves, telling the students where we’d gone to college and how that education had prepared us for the jobs we are doing today," said Tim Dodson, consultant project manager in the Bridge Delivery Unit.
An educational handout included fun facts about birds and their local habits and habitats, for example that cedar waxwings like elderberries so much they will eat them until they fall out of the bushes, intoxicated. For their pre-algebra class, the middle school students were challenged to calculate the volume and surface area of the birdhouses.
The birdhouse kits came with all of the necessary components. The design-build team of T.Y. Lin International and Slayden Construction supplied a trunk of hammers and nails, and soon the gymnasium was filled with the enthusiastic sounds of 90 invigorated children and their willingly wielded hammers.
Once the birdhouses were built, the students personalized them with colorful non-toxic markers.
The combination of environmental, art and shop activity preceded an open house to inform the students' parents about upcoming construction schedules and traffic impacts. The open house was attended by approximately 70 adults.
Director Matt Garrett presented certificates to two representatives of groups who had partnered with the agency on its school outreach program: Jim Muck of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Dale Claasen of Swanson Manufacturing. Claasen demonstrated how to determine the age of a tree using a tool that bores horizontally into the trunk.
"Building the birdhouses was a fun, educational activity for everyone involved," Dodson said. "Students, teachers, parents, construction personnel and project managers all learned something new and enjoyed themselves."
KEZI-TV and West Lane News covered the event, so word got out to those who could not attend about the birdhouses, which will be placed in some of the children’s yards, around town and at the bridge sites.
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