Rasheem Woods was doing great at St. Louis STEM High School, but he hadn’t a clue how to widen a riparian buffer or clean out cattails. And a paid internship working outside with people who could explain that stuff sounded cooler than asking, “You want fries with that?”
His internship was a dry run for Forest Park Forever’s new Nature Works program, funded by a $100,000 grant from Boeing. The nonprofit wants St. Louis Public Schools to use the park as an outdoor classroom, weaving environmental education and green-career prep into the curriculum. The 11 students on the Nature Works crew will work side by side with pros as they connect and expand the park’s wildlife corridor.
“I learned new plants, how to manage land, how to keep landscapes clean,” says Woods (who also plucked hundreds of burrs off his clothes and swatted insects he’d never seen before). “It was very wonderful, the enthusiasm in everybody and how they all wanted to work together.”
