By Ailsa McCormick
Review Intern
Green is not just one of Lake Orion’s school colors.
Tim Polonkey, a teacher and the Earth Club advisor at Lake Orion High School, works hard with his students on different ways of helping to prevent pollution.
They have done things such as energy reduction, waste reduction and ecosystem restoration to help out the planet.
They are working on a project called Oak Openings, a habitat that will have grasses and mature oak trees to help restore a natural ecosystem.
The project helps to bring back bio-diversity and endangered species to the area. It helps to bring back the old habitat for wildlife such as birds and fish.
‘When you remove plants that don’t belong there, you bring back native plants. You also bring back the birds, insects and mammals they relied on,? said Polonkey.
Earth Club is also in the works of applying for a burn permit to rid the area of invasive species.
The club breaks students into groups.
‘We have one group that is going to do a flower and vegetable garden,? Polonkey said.
They not only help bring back natural habitats, but also with preventing and keeping down pollution.
Earth Club assists the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) with their habitat projects. They also help Bald Mountain.
Another big help to the environment done at the high school is recycling.
Lori Hogan, a teacher, started the recycling program at the high school with her Leadership class.
The idea began at Homecoming 2007 when there were many small plastic water bottles at the dance for thirsty students.
At the end of the dance, the Leadership class picked up all those water bottles and threw them away.
‘That’s when I thought, we have got to do something,? said Hogan.
Leadership started the recycling program at the high school in August.
Waste Management provided the green bins which have became a fixture at the school.
‘Waste Management was very helpful with helping to get the recycling going,? said Hogan.
Everything else, the Leadership program pays for–in dollars and labor.
The recycling program costs the class about $100 a month, which students raise themselves.
They buy the plastic bags they collect everything in and bring in the plastic blue bins seen around the school.
They also pay for the Dumpster, which is a large cost since it needs to get emptied each week.
‘We fill that Dumpster every week,? said Hogan.
The class collects paper and plastic every Tuesday and Thursday during lunch. Five percent of their grade is based on their recycling.
‘A janitor told me 90 percent of the trash thrown away is recyclable. We have cut back 10 percent of the trash,? she said.
The Leadership class has many green goals they would like to accomplish. Some of these are to eliminate one of the Dumpsters and to put stickers on the bottles in the vending machines reminding people to recycle the bottles.
‘We also want to have recycling bins set up at every sporting event,? said Hogan.
The class also plans on doing Earth Day cleanup.
‘We try to get as many ideas about going green as we can,? Hogan added.
A simple one everyone can do that makes a big difference is turning off lights and computers at night.
‘One of our goals is to buy a permanent recycling bin,? said Hogan, who also wants to get other Lake Orion schools into recycling.
So far, the recycling program has been a success.
‘There is a ton of support from the administrators and the teachers encourage their students to recycle. LOHS has had a huge improvement with recycling since last year,? said Hogan.