Environmental Science classes have built a boardwalk and begun clearing a nature trail
PAINESDALE -- Dozens of Jeffers High School students toured the woods and enjoyed the shore of Lake Perrault and the Robert Brown Sanctuary Thursday afternoon.
After spending the past two years laboring on a boardwalk and nature trail, the environmental science class invited the entire school to see their accomplishment.
"It’s such a beautiful area and so close to town that I think with a little work by the school and the community, it can be renovated," says science teacher Mike Benda.
The project began about four years ago when the school got permission from the DNR and Michigan Nature Association to make temporary improvements. They've stolen a few days each fall and spring to build a nearly 1000-foot long boardwalk and platform and to start clearing a 3.2 mile trail that will go around the entire lake.
"We want to make a sustainable path that people can walk on and snowshoe in the winter," Benda says.
On Thursday, the 14 students who've worked on the project this year got to explain their research and planning to others students who might actually continue that work in the future.
"It was great to have the whole school out here,” says Anthony Yokie. “I hope they do it every year."
"There isn't much going on in Painesdale so it's nice to have a lake in the summer for kids and people to enjoy," says Devin Pindral.
The students have only finished about a quarter mile of the trail so far, and Benda says it could take as long as 10 years to complete. His students will continue to work on the project next fall, which will also include a second platform for the boardwalk.
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