SPOKANE, Wash. — A cooperative effort that began with a Washington State University Spokane student project will save a major portion of the Glenrose watershed, forest and habitats and help expand the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch, a local camp for at-risk boys.
WSU Spokane Interdisciplinary Design Institute students and faculty are teaming up with WSU/Spokane County Extension agents, a wildlife biologist and boys from the ranch. Teams of university students and boys from the ranch will identify facilities that need to be designed and then build those facilities during the summer.
During the first year of a proposed three-year program, participants hope to:
●Identify a wetland, open space and greenway corridor system and locate wildlife habit areas on more than 500 acres of property on the ranch and on adjacent private property identified by local residents and the Inland Northwest Land Trust.
●Create a Geographic Information Systems database to be used by the land trust, Spokane County planners, local residents and the ranch to monitor the lands’ habitats and measure changes.
●Plan interpretative trails that will be used as part of a “living” classroom for the ranch.
In subsequent years, project leaders hope to design and build the trail, footbridges, seating benches, and interpretative sign stands, with funding for construction materials and equipment to be sought from local, state and federal sources. They also hope to design and publish the brochures and handouts to be used by the boys at the ranch, students and teachers from public school science classes and the public.
Faculty members Bob Scarfo, associate professor of landscape architecture, and Tonie Fitzgerald, WSU/Spokane County Cooperative Extension agent, plan to work with the students and the boys from the ranch. The Charlotte Martin Foundation will provide $50,000 in funding.
The idea for the project originated after an earlier successful cooperative effort. In the fall of 2000, ranch development director Buck Rogers asked WSU Spokane’s Interdisciplinary Design Institute to design a master plan to accommodate the ranch’s expansion.
That plan included capital expansion, retention of active agriculture and the preservation of wetlands and other habitat areas. Four teams of architecture, interior design and landscape architecture students produced one master plan each and 18 designs of portions of the ranch, its buildings and interiors.
The program is modeled after a similar project in which Michigan college and high school students traveled each summer to Battle Creek, Mich., to design and build portions of the Battle Creek zoo.
The Interdisciplinary Design Institute at WSU Spokane undertakes a number of design- assistance projects each year to benefit the community and provide students with hands-on learning experiences. For more information, contact the institute at (509) 358-7920, design@wsu.edu, or see their Web site at www.idi.spokane.wsu.edu.
