Late last winter we conducted a professional development session with the Riverstone International School middle school teachers. We discussed ideas for how they could get support in their classrooms with sustainable objectives and projects, and created a dream list of sustainability projects and ideas for...
Last Thursday and Friday we broke the daily rainfall records in Boise, and on Friday as the rainfall turned to snow, we broke a 1969 snow record for daily snow in April with 2.1" of snowfall, according the to the National Weather Service...
Updated! The Boise River ReWild project is a community effort of partners working with Golden Eagle Audubon Society to restore over 40 acres of land in the Boise River corridor. In September of 2022 SustainingUS adopted a plot to help keep the project going and...
Winter is a great time to work on getting ready for the spring planting season. This February we designed a rewarding project for the Riverstone International School 9th grade Wednesday field experience. The school wanted to create community gardens along the back of the play...
We made a push to install new trees on campus and this fall the school was able to get about a dozen 2" caliper shade trees donated to make our school a more wildlife-friendly and better learning environment....
This fall we got approval to create a laydown yard at Riverstone International School. We identified and area and signed up for ChipDrop, a platform connecting professional arborists with those in need of free mulch. Utilizing ChipDrop we are delivered arborists woodchips and logs which...
The 2023 Project GREEN Sustainability Summit was a great event. A huge Thank You to our supporters and sponsors for making it possible!...
This winter and spring I had the pleasure of working with an amazing educator, Sydney Bergen, from Riverstone International School. Together we worked with the school administration to design a curriculum for her 8th grade Design Technology Class to create a pilot Nature Play Area...
This spring Lucky Peak Nursery, a USFS production nursery, overproduced native plants for their needs and had to sell the extras to the public! In early April I purchased 50 sage brush, 50 bitterbrush, and 100 ponderosa pine seedlings....
"We had a fabulous harvest and feast today!!! Everyone tried them and most came back for more! They said to tell their “mushroom teacher” that they were brave and ate the mushrooms!!! Thank you for an amazing experience." Mrs. Beltrami, Riverstone Pre-K teacher....
One of the most amazing things about Project GREEN is our sponsors and supporters. With their support we were able to cover the costs of running the Summit and could offer the registration fees back to teachers as grants. These grants are allowing them to...
Warm Spring Creek Phase 2. Over the winter we saw some consistent water flows and ice in the project area. The biologs worked as intended and when the channel was overfull we were able to create a small "flood plane" and still maintain the...
We are excited to announce the details of the 4th annual Teacher Sustainability Summit. Save June 9th and 10th on your calendars to join us! Call for presenters and past grant winners. We would love to have you present on your sustainability successes and share the...
In the winter of 21/22 we started work on a great project in Warm Springs Creek. We partnered with Trout Unlimited to provide ecological restoration lessons to school groups and many volunteer opportunities for the community....
This year we found some great advantages- there are outdoor teaching tents, socially distant classrooms, and an emphasis on the outdoor classroom. Its a lot to celebrate given what COVID forced upon us. Earth week at Riverstone was not as boisterous as previous years but...
Sign up now for the 2021 Teacher Sustainability Summit...
There are so many benefits to having living plants in indoor and especially in educational spaces. Indoor plants are important for mental health; they contribute to feelings of peace and solitude, and are inherently calming. Several years ago the Riverstone Green Team (Snake Plant Blog)...
Earlier this fall my college Ben Brock (interim garden teacher) asked if I would help lead a garden class with him at Peace Valley Public Charter Waldorf School which I eagerly agreed to do! I was interested to see this school model and how it...
One of the most striking changes for some of us is the total social disconnection we have created out of a desire to be safe and socially conscious citizens. For some introverts, I know this has been a time of reprieve- a great time to...
We are excited to have the ability to have green team meetings! Given how strange a year its been and health focused restrictions we are meeting outside once a week to work on projects wearing masks! One silver lining that our outdoor focus and outdoor...