The Environmental Club, sponsored by AP Environmental Science teacher Heidi Averette, is a longstanding organization at WS. The purpose of this club is to make WS a model of environmental stewardship and sustainability, and to provide opportunities for meaningful action within our school community.

Sophomore Olivia Byrd expresses that her reason for joining this club is because she is interested in helping school through activities such as gardening and recycling that also help her make connections with other people.

“I joined this club because I wanted to make connections with people when I was a freshman. Then I got really interested in helping our school through fun activities like gardening and recycling that allowed me to connect with peers.” said Byrd.

The Environmental Club also works in conjunction with the FCPS GET2Green. According to get2green.fcps.edu, it states that “Get2Green is the environmental stewardship program for Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, and Get2Green supports division-level policies and projects that complement school-based sustainability work based on a foundation of equity.”

Averette outlines her main objectives she hopes to see come to action while being the sponsor of the Environmental Club. “

“My big goal for our club is to increase biodiversity all over the campus for lots of different reasons,” said Averette. “Increasing biodiversity on our school grounds helps build a stronger, more resilient ecosystem. By supporting native plants, pollinators, and wildlife, we improve air and soil quality, strengthen the local food web, and create a more beautiful and welcoming space for everyone.”

Averette is excited by the opportunity to expand the amount of projects to accomplish these goals.

“I decided to restructure things to give [students] a lot more projects, so that a lot more kids could get involved and that we could improve our environmental practices at the school, and hopefully that will spill out into our WS community,” said Averette. “The projects include setting benches and making the courtyard available for classes to use for outdoor learning and also recycling.”

But the big project the Environmental Club is excited about is planting trees in front of WS. There are six trees planted in our school now which are located near door 2 and door 14 and there are still more trees to come.

“We’ve been working with Fairfax County Urban Forestry Department, and they are the ones who came out. They supplied the trees for us and they gave six trees this fall, and they’re going to come back in the spring and give us six more trees to plant in another spot around the school,” said Averette. “Over the next couple of years, we should see our campus really start to change.”

She also talks about how planting trees is going to help with connection with other people and nature.

“[Planting trees] are going to help to increase enjoyable spaces for kids to hang out in, science has also proven that there is a reduction in stress when people spend time outside and have a chance to also connect with nature.”

According to Byrd, the purpose of planting trees is to help improve air quality and to make our West Springfield high school look more clean.

“Planting trees helps to improve air quality and make our school more green. This is one more step in the direction of making our school certified green,” said Byrd.

The Environmental Club’s project of planting trees is going to make our school more clean and nature friendly. And it is also going to help the students to have a chance to connect with nature and other students more. The environmental club is excited and ready to see the changes in our school through this project.