A Love Affair with the Lake Continues!

Standley Lake is a couple of miles north of Arvada West and is where many of the students at the school hang out on weekends. After a couple of trips to the park with Earth Force last fall (2005) to learn about the animals and habitats, the students in two 11th grade Environmental Science classes met with the manager of the park to talk about possible projects they could do there.

There was not much interest in pulling weeds or planting new grass. One project was to help create trails. The south side of the park has no real trail system but lots of paths people have created that are causing a lot of erosion.

Each class took half of the south side of the park as their project. They conducted inventories of existing trails and identified problems such as erosion areas and places where seats and trash cans were needed. They did research into trail design and building and talked with US Forest Service staff about trail creation and repair. They photographed much of the area and set GPS points at the key places.

Using GIS software, these points were placed on an aerial photograph to help see where the new trails should be. Each class prepared a presentation for the park manager on their plan which is being presented this summer. The park manager has agreed to use the plans and work with the park designers to implement the new trail system. At the beginning of August students from each class will present the plans at a teacher training for ESRI the company that makes the ArcView software.