Salisbury School’s hillside becomes a ‘pollinator meadow’

SALISBURY — There is a curious hillside at the Salisbury School facing Route 44.

Students Sachem Ramos and Russell Judge are the minds behind what they have dubbed the Pollinator Meadow Project. The two spent their senior year at the high school working with the land to increase the biodiversity on their campus.

In the fall of 2022, teacher Brooke Niermann debuted a sustainability course that relied on project-based learning. The class was open ended, encouraging students to answer the question, “How do we make Salisbury School more sustainable?” with real-world projects instead of more traditional work like assessments.

Ramos and Judge wanted to create something for their school that would have a lasting effect. At first, they didn’t know where to begin, and simple brainstorming sessions with their teacher were the most informative exercises.

“It took a while, but we got to the idea of creating a meadow,” said Judge. “We had no idea how we were going to do it, but we knew that was the end goal.

“Then we went to this conference, and that’s where things really started to kick off.”

In early February, Ramos and Judge attended a presentation hosted by the biodiversity awareness organization Silva et Pratum. Expert Mike Nadeau gave a talk titled “Bad Grass” that explained issues related to European turf. This species of grass is regularly manicured; thus it becomes a monoculture — an environment that only supports one species of plant.

Additionally, it consumes dangerous chemicals, maintenance time, and excess funds.

The solution is to transform turf into native meadows that grow many types of plants beneficial to local wildlife.

Ramos elaborated on his intentions. “I just wanted to plant native plants, thinking how we could increase carbon dioxide intake and increase oxygen on campus.Then, we went to that meeting and the project boosted off from there.”

To get their vision into practice, the two set up consultations with Nadeau and multiple administrators at the Salisbury School including the head of school, the CFO, and the heads of the maintenance and grounds crews.

In the first week of March, Niermann remembers Judge and Ramos trekking the hill and hand-planting flags with care. “Sachem just looked at the land slope. He had a natural eye for design. It was incredible,” she said.

The two had to flag the land to visually demonstrate their idea, “We flagged a little more than three acres, which wasn’t the entire hillside,” said Ramos. “Then our headmaster said, ‘Why aren’t we doing the whole lawn?’”

In May, the school scalp-mowed six acres of the hillside. It deep-cleaned the lawn, to revert it to a more original state, prime for a wildflower meadow. On Tuesday, July 11, the meadow had its last vinegar spray treatment, so it was ready for seeding Monday, July 24.

There will be about 45 species of plants, and the meadow will be mowed once a year (starting in spring 2024) for maintenance. Students will participate in hand-weeding.

Judge described plans to put educational signage in the meadow, so students can enjoy the space, either in an outdoor class setting or just for recreation, and learn about the project’s details. Ramos noted that a new chapel will be built in the coming years, so the thriving meadow and the completed construction will create an inviting scene.

Though the project came together in a condensed development period in the spring months of this year, Ramos and Judge have always had a slight awareness of its need.

Ramos said, “My junior year, Mr. Cheney, a science teacher at Salisbury, brought our class out to look at the meadow.”

They learned about its restrictive monoculture. He continued, “I never thought we would end up turning it into a wildflower meadow.”

Judge had a similar experience. “My junior year, we learned about what’s going on in the world with environmental science. It was super depressing to sit there and just listen, not being able to do anything,” he said. So, when he learned about Niermann’s sustainability class, he jumped at the opportunity to combine learning and project-based change.

Indeed, the meadow will be a type of living lab for future classes of Salisbury students. Niermann is clearly proud of Ramos and Judge; she said, “I think a lot of the learning happened through the failures, but the boys worked their tails off and had a lot of great support.”

Judge will start at Bates College this fall and hopes to study environmental science and business or engineering.

Ramos will attend University of Michigan, and although he’s undecided, he sees learning about artificial intelligence and climate technology, such as solar panels, alongside environmental topics, as a solid plan forward for his academic career.