Somers students get their hands dirty

Jacob Doran / West Shore NewsOn Friday, May 29, the Somers 7th grade students trekked to the H.E. Robinson Vocational-Agricultural Center off of Willow Glen Drive. While there, the students engaged in multiple activities, visiting at least six different stations on the grounds of the 100-acre farm project. These included bird surveying, identifying and managing invasive species, stream bank restoration, medical and edible plants, seed planting, aquatic invertebrates and fly-fishing.

The Vo-Ag Center sits on the banks of the Stillwater River in Kalispell, which has for years suffered severe erosion. The Vo-Ag Center provides a variety of classes and farming activities for area high school and middle school students, and has gained media attention for an aggressive project that allows students to help restore the stream bank and prevent future erosion.

The seventh-graders will return to the Vo-Ag Center next fall, as eighth grades, to check up on their projects and see what kind of progress has been made, particularly in with the trees and seeds they planted during last month's visit.