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Students Get Hands-on Lesson at Miramar Landfill

Students from the Francis Parker School got their hands dirty today at the Miramar Landfill. As KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce tells us, the seventh graders were helping to restore a closed sect

Students Get Hands-on Lesson at Miramar Landfill

(Photo: Twelve-year-old Bobby Gojuangco, a student at the Francis Parker School, plants native species to help restore a closed section of the Miramar Landfill. Ed Joyce/KPBS ).

Students from the Francis Parker School got their hands dirty today at the Miramar Landfill.  As KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce tells us, the seventh graders were helping to restore a closed section of the landfill.

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More than 20 Francis Parker School students stretched out in an open field at the Miramar Landfill, digging holes to plant California Sagebrush and other native species. Math teacher John Hulsey says the hands-on work lets students apply classroom lessons while restoring the landfill.

Hulsey: I think that it's a really exciting thing for them that we can practice some of that out in the field and I'm hoping that at some point we can come back, they can come back, and see what they've planted and see, you know, the fruit of their efforts.

Burton Ewert is a biologist with the city of San Diego's Department of Environmental Services. He told the students about the importance of their project.

Ewert: What better to do with a landfill than to make it what it was like prior to the landfill being here. And that's kind of the whole basis of the program, create habitat and see all the birds, lizards, animals you name it come on back in here.

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Warehall: Hi, I'm Chloe Warehall. I think this is like a really good experience because I like being able to plant things and it's nice knowing that it'll be helpful for animals in the future and it's cool doing something that I like to do but also helping.

As to the future, 13-year-old Chloe is already looking ahead to spending more time as she put it "helping."

Warehall: A lot of the problems have been left for our generation. Like the ecosystem and global warming and the ozone layer, so I probably will.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.