Page 16 - Priorities #31 2005-July

Water quality is, in Mr. Clark’s words, “a barometer of community stewardship.”
campuses to the San Francisco Bay and is a natural, physical link connecting the schools as well as Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.
Test results aren’t in, but the process of creating such projects raises students’ awareness that environmental problems can begin even in such a green and idyllic environment as Portola Valley. It is a part of Mr. Clark’s ongoing effort to make the Priory a more “green” community. Water quality is, in Mr. Clark’s words, “a barometer of community stewardship.”
The San Franciscquito Creek watershed is
a large and complex ecosystem, and activity in one part of the watershed can affect the entire ecosystem. William Ruckelshaus, the first head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, once said that today everyone is downstream or downwind from someone else. This is one of the credos of Mr. Clark’s environmental education. Water quality in Portola Valley affects other communities in the San Francisquito watershed.
At the end of the school year, the two classes met for the first time at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. After a semester of testing downstream
and upstream, these two groups symbolically
met midstream and tested water together in small mixed groups. Group leaders talked about the social and environmental interconnectedness of various communities in the Bay Area. Mr. Clark and Ms. Wilber hope to increase the collaboration next year, creating a stronger connection between students at the Priory and at Eastside College Prep.
This is not the first time that Mr. Clark and
Ms. Wilber have worked together. Last year, they created a similarly hands-on project in which
AP Environmental Science students studied fire ecology. The class spent a semester researching
the effects of deer on risks of wildfire and on regeneration of plant life. The initial connection between Woodside Priory and the Jasper Ridge Preserve was brought about by John Kriewall, whose daughter is a member of the Priory class of 2007. John is a friend of both WPS and Jasper Ridge and loves to see the positive effects that networks can generate.
To find out more about the project, go to http:// jasper1.stanford.edu
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Story and photos by Zuzka Fedorkova Class of 2000
Stanford University
Class of 2004